What is the Huntingdale Precinct Plan?

The Huntingdale Precinct Plan (the 'Precinct Plan') is a transformative, long term vision outlining opportunities to revitalise Huntingdale and immediately surrounding areas.

The document was prepared by PriceWaterhouseCoopers Consulting and SJB Urban and adopted (with changes) by Council in March 2020. The revised version available below incorporates the changes made by Council when adopting the Precinct Plan.

The document provides a Vision and four key principles, general objectives and strategies organised around the themes of Economic Mix, Place and Access, and precinct-specific requirements around the same themes.

Council prepared an implementation plan that covers a number of actions from the Precinct Plan, including strategic work, further design and master planning, capital works, and advocacy / facilitation. Amendment C173 covers the short term strategic work actions.

What is proposed in Amendment C173?

Amendment C173 is implementing the short term strategic work actions from the Huntingdale Precinct Plan. The amendment proposes:

  • New Design and Development Overlays to the precinct core and industrial areas of the precinct;
  • Limited rezoning of some land within the precinct core to the Commercial 1 and Mixed Use zones, and a change of schedule to the General Residential Zone in the surrounding residential areas; and
  • Policy and other minor administrative changes.

New Design and Development Overlays

The existing Design and Development Overlay (DDO1) applies to the industrial areas within the Huntingdale Precinct. Amendment C173 proposes to remove DDO1 from this land and apply two DDOs in its place.

  • DDO20 is applied to the commercial and mixed use areas in the core of the precinct.
  • DDO21 is applied to the industrial areas within the precinct.

The DDOs set out design requirements for building heights, ground and upper level setbacks, connectivity, and landscaping. There are both general and specific precinct design requirements. Heights within the precinct range from 11m (up to 3 storeys) to 27m (up to 8 storeys), although the taller heights (above 4 storeys) are concentrated around the core along Huntingdale Road and near the railway station.

Limited rezoning

Amendment C173 proposes to rezone the following properties from the Industrial 1 Zone to the Commercial 1 Zone (and apply the Environmental Audit Overlay):

  • 1269 North Road, Oakleigh
  • 144 to 180 Haughton Road, Oakleigh
  • 31 to 39 Railway Avenue, Oakleigh
  • 265 to 271 Huntingdale Road, Oakleigh

The amendment also proposes to rezone the following residential properties along Huntingdale Road to facilitate housing growth within the precinct:

  • Rezones 250 to 254 and 264 to 276 Huntingdale Road, Huntingdale from the General Residential Zone 2 to the Mixed Use Zone 4
  • Rezones 256-262 Huntingdale from the Residential Growth Zone 5 to the Mixed Use Zone 4, retains the existing EAO on the site, and deletes the RGZ5 schedule from the planning scheme.

The amendment also proposes to change the other residential land within the precinct (identified as Activity Areas 8A and 8B in the Precinct Plan, and some residential land along Burlington Street in Activity Areas 1 and 2) from General Residential Zone 2 to the GRZ12. There is no change to the existing setback requirements (e.g. 7.6m front setback) or building height requirements (i.e. 11m / 3 storeys). However, GRZ12 does include new neighbourhood character objectives, new landscaping requirements, and a slightly smaller ground level private open space requirement (i.e. 50m² instead of the 75m² required in GRZ2). These remain areas for incremental residential change suitable for units, townhouses and small-scale apartments. The amendment also adjusts the zones of residential land immediately outside of the precinct from GRZ2 to match the surrounding GRZ3.

Policy and other minor administrative changes

A new planning policy is proposed to assist in decision-making principally for change of land use applications.

The amendment also proposes some changes to the MSS/MPS to define the Huntingdale Precinct as an important part of the Monash National Employment and Innovation Cluster (Monash NEIC) for employment intensive uses.

A minor administrative change includes making changes to the schedule to Clause 52.28 (Gaming) to prohibit electronic gaming machines within the areas proposed to be rezoned from IN1Z to C1Z.