At the 10 June 2025 Council meeting, Councillors voted to request the Planning Minister to commence a planning scheme amendment process to extend and amend the mapping of the Erosion Management Overlay (EMO) in the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme.
This means if the Planning Minister agrees there will be changes to the number of properties that have an Erosion Management Overlay applied across the municipality.
Council also resolved to ask the Minister to also apply the new mapping on an interim basis. If the Minister agrees these will be applied immediately as a temporary measure while a permanent amendment process undergoes community consultation which provides residents with an opportunity to provide feedback.
Until Council receives advice from the Planning Minister, which may take some time, Council is only able to confirm which properties are already currently covered by an EMO.
While the State Government is responsible for Overlays as part of the Planning Scheme, it is Council's responsibility to apply them and ensure they are current. Updating an Overlay requires a Planning Scheme Amendment (PSA) process to be undertaken. Yarra Ranges has a history of landslip risk, with several identified landslip sites including Warburton, the Dandenongs and Montrose.
Recent weather patterns, including increased rainfall and severe storms and drought have also heightened the risk of landslips over the past four years.
Following the June 2021 storm, which caused significant tree loss and property damage, there was an opportunity to address the increasing likelihood of landslip risk in the Yarra Ranges municipality.
With funds from the Federal government's Preparing Australian Communities Fund, Council was able to obtain updated mapping using the latest technology called Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), prior to this Council was using mapping from the 1990s.
The new mapping has identified that some properties currently with an EMO will have it removed, others will need to have the Overlay added and some will have a change made to their current Overlay.
Until the Planning Minister has given Council permission to place the amendment on public exhibition Council is unable to provide the details about which new properties an EMO will be applied to or deleted. If residents want to know if they already have an EMO on their property this can be found on the State Governments VicPlan website by entering your address into https://mapshare.vic.gov.au/vicplan.
Yarra Ranges Mayor Councillor Jim Child said, landslides are a complicated matter, but it is important that people understand the risks that we live with in the Yarra Ranges.
"We're already used to living with bushfire as a risk and for some of residents they need to be aware that there is a risk of landslide too and this is something we can manage and live with.
"Over the past few years there have been several landslides in our municipality and following the incident in McCrae this has been headline news with a Board of Inquiry currently taking place.
"So, what does an EMO mean for our residents? Well, it's just like a Bushfire Management Overlay – there are certain requirements when it comes to developing your property. Basically – if you live in a property that has an EMO talk to Council's planning officers before developing your property including the garden.
"Planning Scheme Amendments can be a lengthy process. We recently completed the first part of our review of landslips and EMO in Yarra Ranges where Amendment C217 was approved. This changed some of the conditions when it comes to developing or rebuilding a property when an EMO applies and it bought us in line with other councils. Now we're trying to ensure that we're applying these new conditions to all properties that would be at risk by using the latest technology.
"While this proposed Amendment may cause some concern, it's important that we do this to make sure we can plan and work towards keeping our community safe.
"As well as property-owners, there are also steps that Council are undertaking including identifying high-risk corridors and assets that require protection or upgrades, prioritise budget spend for infrastructure investment and capital works in high-risk areas and working with our emergency services partners to plan for landslide management."
"When we undertake community consultation on the amendment, we will also hold some webinars to assist impacted residents understand what the process is, what it means for them and how to make a submission if they wish to do so."
