The Andrews government is rewriting sections of Plan Melbourne, a blueprint for how Melbourne can accommodate an extra four million residents by 2050.

The plan was released by the former Napthine government last year but was criticised for failing to provide a long-term vision for growth.

Planning Minister Richard Wynne launched the discussion paper "Plan Melbourne Refresh" on Thursday. It says the city's established areas could be asked to provide 70 per cent of new housing, limiting growth on the urban fringe to 30 per cent.

The 2014 version of Plan Melbourne called for established areas, including the central city, to accommodate only 61 per cent of the 1.57 million new dwellings needed before 2051.

On Thursday Mr Wynne said "this should not be debate about protecting the leafy eastern suburbs".

"We know that there are enormous challenges ahead of us as a community in having to house [an extra] 100,000 people every year, year on year through to 2050," he said.

Professor Michael Buxton – a vocal critic of Mr Wynne's predecessor Opposition Leader Matthew Guy – believes almost 1.3 million homes can be built in existing inner, middle and outer suburbs.

Mr Wynne will seek bipartisan support for his "rebooted" Plan Melbourne, which will scrap references to the East West Link and include plans addressing climate change and affordable housing.

But opposition planning spokesman David Davis is concerned additional pressure on Melbourne's middle suburbs could damage liveability and put at risk "many of the important values of middle Melbourne".

Save our Suburbs president Ian Wood said while the adjusted plan was probably a better approach than the original, he expected any move to increase densities in established suburbs would produce "a lot of resistance".

"From a political point of view it is a bit of a bombshell because people are already worried about increased development particularly in the areas of Glen Eira and Whitehorse," he said.

The new discussion paper was guided by a six-person committee led by Professor Roz Hansen, who was also brought in by the previous government to help develop Plan Melbourne.

Professor Hansen had a public falling out with Mr Guy, then planning minister, after many of the committee's recommendations were ignored in the final document.

Re-appointed by Labor, the committee said that Plan Melbourne 2014 would not create enough affordable housing.

Professor Hansen said zoning that required developers to build a proportion of social housing could be expanded to include urban renewal sites across metropolitan Melbourne.

However the Property Council say many of the measures recommended by the committee such as imposed housing diversity requirements would "directly undermine housing affordability and housing choice".

It is likely a refreshed Plan Melbourne would see new rules to protect productive agricultural land around the city for food production.

The committee said housing estates on the urban fringes was consuming vast tracts of lands and leading to expensive car-dependent lifestyles.

Submissions on the discussion paper can be made until December 18 2015.

Visit http://www.planmelbourne.vic.gov.au/ for more information.