12 October 2018
In April this year, the Minister for Planning established the Improving Stormwater Management Advisory Committee to provide independent advice to both the Minister for Planning and the Minister for Water on planning and development controls for improving stormwater management and strengthening the links between water management and urban planning.
The Committee is made up of experts from across the water and planning sectors, who bring a wealth of experience to the table, including Committee Chair and Water Sensitive Cities Stakeholder Engagement Executive Director Chris Chesterfield. Additional Committee members include planning experts Susan Porter and Julie Katz, and environmental and resource economist Jeremy Cheesman.
During June & July, the Committee consulted widely. It held workshops with various stakeholder representatives and met one-on-one with some stakeholders. DELWP received a total of 46 written submissions, from a range of Victorian local councils, water corporations, housing and building industry organisations and environmental and community groups.
In October, Minister for Water Lisa Neville and Minister for Planning Richard Wynne announced changes to all Victorian planning schemes to extend the stormwater planning requirements to commercial, industrial, public and multi dwelling residential developments. The changes will ensure most developments requiring planning permits reduce pollution and other harmful effects of stormwater entering waterways. The changes were recommended by the Committee in their recently released final report.
The committe report, stakeholder engagement findings, consultation documents, and submissions to the issues paper are available on the DELWP website. The government media release is available on the Premier website.