The Open Space Planning and Design Guide

This Open Space Planning and Design Guide advocates on behalf of the industry that:
Open space is vitally important in the development and sustainability of communities;
Sufficient quantity and quality of open space is critical in the planning of communities to
ensure that long term social needs can be addressed and environmental values can be
preserved; and
A no ‘net loss’ policy for the provision of open space is a sound policy position for local
government to consider so that open space is preserved for future generations.
This document guides:
– Development of sound and consistent policy across all local governments to inform open space contributions through planning provisions at a local level;
– Assessment of planning applications that statutory planners will consider as new communities are planned and existing communities are regenerated;
– Strategies to assist local government prepare planning scheme amendments and defend ocal planning decisions for open space contributions at Council and at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal;
– Approaches that can be applied to the numerous settlement types that exist in Victoria that are determined by government policy and the urban regional and rural nature of the state;
– Planning processes that Councils will undertake to plan and develop open space and achieve the best outcomes from land that is available.