Council opens up land to address housing shortage

Council today took the first step to address Wellington’s acute housing shortage, paving the way to facilitate the development of around 1600 new housing lots.

Four planning decisions were supported by Council, which will allow major housing developments to progress in Wurruk, north Sale and Longford.

This decision begins delivery of one of the five key priority areas of Council’s four-year strategic Council Plan: sustainable population growth and housing choice.

Wellington Shire Council Mayor Ian Bye said Council had undertaken a residential growth assessment and stocktake, then worked with landowners to open up more land for development for new lots to address the housing shortage.

“Today’s decisions were an important step in addressing our critical housing shortage,” he said.

“These four projects provide a well-rounded offering to those wanting to build a home, there are options in the north and south.”

The Mayor said it was important to provide a choice of different options to potential home builders, with land opened up for both smaller housing lots and rural residential blocks.

“Council continues to do a great deal of work to attract new business and further investment in Wellington and for those moving into the region, there needs to be adequate affordable housing,” he said.

“As well as supply, current residents and those wanting to relocate to Wellington want options.

“They want diversity of housing, both size and location, to meet different needs – from large lot rural residential at Longford through to standard residential lots to both the north and west of Sale.

“These proposed developments will offer standard housing lots and a nice selection of rural residential, which have been popular as an option in recent years for those wanting a little more room to move.”

At today’s meeting, Council supported:

• The adoption of the Wurruk Development Plan, which will provide around 1255 lots across six individual proposed estates on land which is already zoned for urban development
• The preparation of a planning scheme amendment which proposes to rezone land to open the way for the potential development of more than 200 lots in north Sale across two different sites
• The preparation of a planning scheme amendment which proposes to rezone land for around 180 lifestyle lots in Longford.

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