Share your thoughts on the Warby Place Plan
Published on 09 July 2021
Community members are encouraged to share their thoughts on the draft Warburton Place Plan, which has opened for community engagement until the end of August.
The Place Plan was created to help prepare the wider Warburton and Upper Yarra area for future increases in tourism, the planned transition of the timber industry and to maintain the feel and culture of the region through coming years.
The draft plan is available on Council’s website and open for comment until 27 August 2021.
O’Shannassy Ward Councillor, Jim Child, said the draft Place Plan was the result of hundreds of comments and submissions from community members between December 2018 and May 2019.
“We know that there’s a lot coming up in Warburton’s future, and so in late 2018 we started gathering feedback from locals at football games, at community events, workshops, pop-ups and in online surveys – all of which have been distilled into our draft Warburton Place Plan,” Cr Child said.
“The draft plan has a number of priorities for Council, based on the community’s feedback, including: supporting local jobs and businesses; focusing on community wellbeing, access and inclusion; celebrating people, culture and place; improving public spaces and walking amenity locally and; improving traffic and transport connections.
“We use place plans to guide our priorities for an area – projects and capital works that come up in the Warburton region in the next decade will be directly informed and influenced by this document.
“The Place Plan and the goals and priorities it sets out, will help us to protect the things that people love about the Upper Yarra and prepare the region for the arrival of projects like the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination.
“I encourage anyone in the community, from residents to those working locally or who regularly visit, to have a read and let us know what you think of the plan.”
Progress on the development of the Place Plan was paused in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Work resumed on the project this year. Council used community feedback and themes gathered in 2018 and 2019 – including on the Engagement and Discussion Paper – to create the draft Place Plan.
Themes of importance identified during these periods included:
- The natural environment, in particular the rivers and forests
- The connectedness and inclusiveness of the community
- A strong local economy
- Affordable housing choices
- Increased knowledge of and celebration of people and culture in the region, in particular deeper engagement with Indigenous communities
- Recognition of the village character of Warburton and its physical spaces
- Access and movement around town, including infrastructure to support walking, parking, traffic and public transport
- Emergency management and bushfire preparedness
- Public places to gather
- Better communication from Council and other levels of Government
For more information about the Warburton Place Plan, or to leave your feedback, visit shaping.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/warburton-place-plan