Moonee Valley Council wanted Mr Wynne to approve a building only half that height.

But developer Caydon - which is also behind a plan to partially demolish the Nylex silos in Richmond to build almost 1000 apartments - has welcomed the decision.

On Thursday, Mr Wynne said the approval followed the advice of an expert planning panel that he had appointed.

Two planning experts advised Mr Wynne that the application "would seem at face value to be a serious overdevelopment" but said approval should be given. Preferred height limits for the site were for 16 levels.

An artist's impression of stage one of the development, which is 23 storeys high. Photo: Supplied

The tower will have almost 700 apartments. The site is behind Moonee Ponds shopping strip and close to the local railway station.

Mr Wynne said there were only discretionary planning rules for what could be built on the Moonee Ponds site, not mandatory conditions, and that this needed to be changed.

"The community is tired of a mockery being made of discretionary limits," Mr Wynne said. "We will take the steps necessary to do away with flimsy controls that give developers licence to build beyond what the community expects."

But Greens MP Greg Barber said Labor and Mr Wynne were trying to avoid responsibility for what is likely to be an unpopular decision locally, while giving developers everything they wanted.

"Someone needs to point out to this bloke that the reason that a big white limo picks him up and drives him to work every day is that he is the minister for planning. He has the power to determine the controls for any piece of land at the stroke of a pen."

Opposition planning spokesman David Davis said the government could have approved a lower tower on the site but was "determined to force high-rise development throughout our suburbs".

Mr Davis said Mr Wynne had recently approved a height limit of 10 levels on a large former industrial site in North Fitzroy, in the minister's marginal seat of Richmond. "He intervenes when it suits him politically in his own electorate," he said.

The site where Caydon will build the tower is in Hall Street, Moonee Ponds. Caydon is already building stage one of the project, a 23-storey tower on the large block, known as the Moonee Ponds market site.

The Labor MP for Essendon, which covers Moonee Ponds, is Danny Pearson. He said the proposed tower that Mr Wynne had approved would not please locals.

"I don't think the community expectation is that 30 storeys is right for that site. I would imagine people aren't going to be happy about it - I'm not happy about it," Mr Pearson said.

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Moonee Valley Mayor Andrea Surace??? said the council was "extremely disappointed" with the decision and "represents a gross overdevelopment of the site".

Caydon chief operations officer Jarrod Stratton said, with stage one already under way, "we can move forward with the project in its entirety".