Colac Otway Shire Council is continuing work to unlock housing land in parts of the Deans Creek growth area in Colac, focusing on the most appropriate sites for subdivision.
Council has been doing strategic work to guide potential housing development in the Deans Creek growth area. Recently completed studies, along with recent changes to national flood regulations, have identified that some areas of the precinct are unlikely to be viable to develop, due to range of factors including inundation, fragmented land ownership and development costs. Following this, Council will now focus on planning for the sites that have the best potential to accommodate the future growth of the town.
To facilitate this growth, Council will seek to prepare an Outline Development Plan (ODP), rather than a Precinct Structure Plan as originally proposed. The key difference is that the ODP will not include rezoning of land, which will now need to be funded by developers themselves.
Originally, Council had received an offer from a major landowner in the growth area to contribute funds to cover the costs of the rezoning.
However, that funding is no longer available, meaning that this aspect of the project is no longer able to proceed.
Despite this change of scope, the new project direction will give developers and the community a clearer view of the area's future layout, including roads, drainage, open space and amenities.
"We're still planning for housing in the Deans Creek growth area, just in a more targeted way, with lower costs to Council," said General Manager Community and Economy, Ian Seuren.
"This new plan will guide developers who want to rezone land, giving them clear direction and reducing uncertainty."
Work so far has included community engagement and technical assessments of stormwater, land capability, ecology, heritage and infrastructure. This will guide future planning.
"We've done the groundwork, including community engagement, technical assessments, and strategic investigations - and we'll use that work to inform the new plan," Mr Seuren said.
"We're making sure future growth in Deans Creek is guided by evidence, shaped by community input, and focused on the areas that make the most sense, responding to challenges that have emerged through the course of the early stages of the project."
A key challenge that has impacted the project is the requirement to remodel the area for flood impact, following changes to the industry guidance after the project commenced. The Australian Rainfall and Runoff Guidelines (ARR) is a national standard that is used by the industry in flood estimation and is updated from time to time to ensure that it reflects best practice. The ARR was updated in August 2024, with the changes focused on improvements to how climate change is factored into flood models. As a result of the inclusion of the revised data, increased rainfall intensities - and therefore flood extent and depth - was found to have a considerable impact on the Deans Creek floodplain.
The community will have opportunity to comment on the draft Outline Development Plan once it's complete.
Most of the project's budget is from State Government sources, with $425,000 from Regional Development Victoria and $270,000 from the Victorian Planning Authority. Council is contributing $300,000.
