Council has developed a draft Planning for Biodiversity Policy to be applicable across the entire municipality.

The purpose of this policy is to provide guidance to council officers and developers to ensure all new conservation reserves are appropriately designed and handed over in a suitable condition. The policy establishes Council expectations of the design, securing, management, monitoring and vesting of conservation reserves.

The Planning for Biodiversity Policy has been developed to document and clarify many processes already in place at an officer level at City of Whittlesea:

This policy assists with ensuring that conservation areas due to be vested in Council come across in a suitable condition or with suitable resources. The policy also seeks to facilitate protecting conservation reserves through updates to zoning when vesting occurs to avoid legacy issues of conservation reserves being inappropriately zoned.

We are seeking feedback on the Planning for Biodiversity Policy as part of a targeted consultation program with local developers and interested parties.