The Amess Rd Precinct Structure Plan approved by planning minister Sonya Kilkenny.
The Victorian government has approved its second suburb-sized new housing precinct in opposition to local council views in the span of a month.
State Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny will today announce the finalisation of the 1360-home Amess Rd Precinct Structure Plan for the Riddells Creek area in the Macedon Ranges.
The proposal was rejected by the Macedon Ranges Shire over concerns it would impact the town’s rural identity and had insufficient developer contributions for infrastructure in 2023.
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It was then pushed to the state’s Development Facilitation Program last year by developer Banner Asset Management — headed by Andrew Turner, who is also an owner of the Melbourne United basketball team.
It will see a 131ha new housing hub and community centre built to host an estimated 3800 people, close to doubling the towns’s about 4500 person population at the last Census.
It follows the approval of a new 15,000 home mega-suburb PSP in Beveridge to Melbourne’s north earlier this month, along with a contentious quarry, that raised the ire of locals including the Mitchell Shire Council.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny are pushing for more housing to be built in and around Melbourne. Picture: NewsWire / Nadir Kinani.
It also comes after premier Jacinta Allan’s February threat to strip councils of planning powers if they don’t overhaul processes to help facilitate a statewide goal of building 2.24 million new homes by 2051.
Yesterday, Ms Kilkenny said the approval was about giving Victorians the “same opportunities their parents had” and followed a range of reforms aimed at boosting housing supply in areas where many “have been locked out for far too long”.
“The Amess Road Precinct will give more Victorians the chance to call the beautiful Macedon Ranges home, while still having access to all the key services they need,” Ms Kilkenny said.
Member for Macedon Mary-Anne Thomas backed the government decision, noting the “Macedon Ranges is the best place to live” and that it was important to unlock more land so those who grew up there could continue to live there.
Nearmap aerial imagery shows the site today is mostly paddocks and small farms. Image: Nearmap.
But it was panned by Macedon Ranges Shire mayor Dominic Bonanno who said it “totally disregarded the overwhelming community feedback”, and boded poorly for other councils.
“There’s certainly a sense from the council and on a personal level that the community voice is being diminished via this DFP … and this is happening across the state as a way to meet these arbitrary target figures that were set without any real consultation with the local government,” Mr Bonanno said.
The site was zoned for Urban Growth in 2017, meaning development had been expected — however council have lamented a protracted and robust community consultation was largely ignored in the government’s decision.
“Council extends its sincere thanks to the Riddells Creek community for their continued engagement, advocacy, and commitment throughout the public hearing and consultation phases,” Mr Bonanno said.
“The approval of the PSP now means Council must facilitate it, however we will continue to hold the development to account in every detail, while also advocating for further support in the best interests of the community and Council.”
Riddells Creek residents who were part of the Save Riddells Creek Facebook group took to social media yesterday, with many commenting they were disappointed, but not surprised.
“The approval of Ammes Road is no surprise, what else can we expect from this underwhelming Victorian government?” wrote one.
How the site looks at ground level today. Image: Google Street View.
Another indicated they were “seriously considering packing up and leaving Victoria” and “I have had a gutful of it to be honest”.
Many also posted the approval documents, which suggest block sizes in an initial 182-lot sale would range from 350sq m to more than 1000sq m.
They also identify recreation spaces, linear parks and a conservation area.
But the decision has been praised by the development industry.
RPM Real Estate national managing director of built form Luke Kelly said Riddells Creek made sense for development, being closer to an existing train station than the Macedon Ranges’ primary new housing hub around Gisborne.
Mr Kelly said while sales would likely start as soon as the developer could, he believed it would be closer to mid 2026 before they could have houses completed — given key infrastructure would need to be approved and built first.
While infrastructure could be under construction as soon as November, it will still be years before houses are ready for new residents to move into.
Oliver Hume economist Matthew Bell said the Macedon Ranges Shire had been well below its own past efforts in land sales in the past two years, averaging about 120 sales in 2023 and 2024 — far below the more than 600 it recorded in 2021.
While market conditions were not as strong today, Mr Bell said the numbers showed the Shire could “contribute meaningfully to vacant land sale”.
“I think state governments stepping in to make sure more housing is delivered is a key part of the change in the regulatory environment that we need,” he said.
Oliver Hume sales records indicate the most likely homebuyers will be families refusing to give up having a backyard, and that a high percentage will likely be non-Australian born ethnicities.
Urban Development Institute of Australia Victorian chief executive Linda Allison said from a supply perspective, the government’s approval was “pleasing”.
There are ongoing concerns for Melbourne’s housing supply, with the time it takes government to establish Precinct Structure Plans a key aspect experts say needs to improve.
“Any increase to supply is a good thing,” Ms Allison said.
However, she said more work needed to be done to accelerate the time it took for prospective housing land to be made available to the market.
Planning Victoria is working towards reducing the time needed to approve Precinct Structure Plans by a third.
While the PSP was approved, she noted there would still be further approvals needed for things like cultural heritage and water management.
The government green light also paves the way for a raft of infrastructure improvements including a new roundabout at Kilmore Rd and Gyro Close, and an upgrade to the Kilmore and Amess Roads intersection.
It is believed Banner Asset Management control a significant portion of the new Precinct Structure Plan, but that there are still a number of private owners in control of some of the land.
Banner Asset Management was contacted.
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