Final decision looms for Bellarine DAL

VICTORIA’S planning department won’t guarantee public scrutiny of a report that will inform a long-awaited Bellarine planning document that will determine the extent of housing development on the peninsula for coming decades.

A decision on the Bellarine Distinctive Area and Landscape (DAL) process now rests with the state government after the DAL’s Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) submitted its final report.

But residents and others interested in the report are unlikely to discover its contents until a decision is handed down, and perhaps even later, with its release at the discretion of the Planning Minister.

The SAC submitted its final report on Friday last week, following five weeks of hearings that finished early last month.

The committee heard from land developers seeking to extend Bellarine town boundaries to accommodate new housing in coming years, and from objecting residents and organisations who favoured keeping boundaries in place to preserve natural values and town character.

New Planning Minister Lizzie Blandthorn is set to consider the report and hand down a final Statement of Planning Policy (SPP), which would lock in boundaries for the next 50 years.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning said the government had yet to decide on the timing of its decision with a state election looming in November.

“The committee submitted its report on July 8, 2022 to the Minister. It will be at the discretion of the Minister if and when the report will be made public,” a DELWP spokesperson said.

The draft Bellarine SPP released last year suggested minimal change to the existing town boundaries, with future growth limited to already identified growth zones.