KAREN CORR

There is a lot of talk right now about Bendigo a growing city, increasing population, the need for more housing, more infrastructure and opportunities for economic growth. But it's time to stop, take a breath and think about what we value in our city.

There is nothing wrong with talking about the growing popoluation and associated needs for Bendigo to accomodate this, but the way it seems to be viewed right now amongst policy makers is that population and economic growth occurs exponentially without any consideration of the finite resources and space we actually have, let alone the other potential impacts such as pollution and biodiversity loss just to name a few.

This is an issue and needs discussion.

Bendigo will attract an increased population and so we urgently need to consider what small towns would welcome more people, what areas we consider appropriate for development or no go zones, how services can be provided economically and how we can design our city innovatively to meet the needs of the population without impacting the things we love. 

One of the biggest things we need to consider is what do we want our city to be like in the future and what do we value most about it right now. Meeting the needs of population increase at the expense of the things we value the most is just not ok, particularly when there are other options available.

That's the whole point of studies like the recent Landscape Assessment of Big Hill and Mandurang Valley. To find out what areas are of value or sensitive so we can take this into account in our planning for the future. This document which included extensive analysis and community consultation was accepted by Councillors at a recent Council meeting and rightly so.

The report found that a large area of land under pressure for change has the potential to impact upon the value or significance of the landscape and recommends a Significant Landscape Overlay (SLO) be applied to those areas. These areas include Big Hill and Mandurang Valley South.

The next steps now are for Council to prepare a planning scheme amendment  incorporating the SLO. Once drafted the amendment will be open for submissions then likely go to an Independent Panel for consideration.

This may be an interesting process because there are some developers who hold a significant amount of land within the proposed SLO area and who have a lot to gain if that area one day became a housing development site. The SLO would restrict the ability for them to do this so it is expected that they will oppose the amendment.

Anyway, despite the outcome, the Council should be congratulated on preparing such a comprehensive Landscape Assessment in the first place that assesses the significance of the landscape prior to decision making about it's land use. This is a great process and should be undertaken prior to any decisions on land use development in the future.

More information on the Landscape Assessment can be found here.