AAP
An extra 60,000 homes will be built in 10 established Melbourne suburbs with existing public transport connections and retail options.
Victoria’s Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny said authorities would introduce planning controls by the end of next year to allow for more dwellings to be built.
Areas chosen are Niddrie (Keilor Road), Broadmeadows, Camberwell Junction, Chadstone, Epping, Frankston, Moorabbin, North Essendon, Preston (High Street) and Ringwood, tender documents from the Victorian Planning Authority show.
“They’ve been selected because of their strategic significance and their potential to deliver more homes in areas that are really well serviced by transport, by services, they’re well connected,” Ms Kilkenny told reporters on October 30.
The documents do not reveal estimated costs of building the homes or when they are set to be completed.
They do reveal the 10 initial areas will guide investment of community infrastructure with the total number of ‘activity centres’ expected to increase to 120.
Chadstone, home to one of the southern hemisphere’s largest shopping centres, has a bus interchange but does not have a train station or access to trams.
The commitment to build 60,000 new homes in the 10 suburbs is part of the government’s housing statement unveiled by former premier Daniel Andrews.
It includes a push to build 800,000 homes over the next decade to meet the demands of the state’s growing population as well as a statewide levy on all online short-term accommodation bookings.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the government had shown it was incapable of meeting its home-building targets.
“Whether it’s the 60,000 that’s reported today or the 80,000 a year that was in the housing statement, it’s all a con,” Mr Pesutto said.
“There’s no money for it and there’s no detail around the plan.”
He suggested there aren’t enough roads, schools and hospitals in the 10 suburbs to cope with a population influx of that scale.
“What the government has done is neglect the outer growth suburbs and the outer suburbs generally with local community infrastructure,” he said.
Ms Kilkenny and Premier Jacinta Allan appeared at RMIT University in Melbourne on October 30, to spruik a recruitment drive for 90 extra planners.
They are being hired to work on the housing reforms and clear a backlog of about 1400 planning permit applications older than six months.
