Urban sprawl moving onto rural land across Ballarat

Emeritus Professor of Environment and Planning at the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Michael Buxton said cheap housing in new suburbs is incredibly dangerous for young first home buyers and he is imploring the City of Ballarat to find more in-fill opportunities closer to the city.

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Professor Buxton's comments come as another new planned estate in Bonshaw has become available for comment.

The application for 70 Webb Road, Bonshaw, is for the 60 new homes to be built on an area of less than four hectares - or just on 10 acres - with an average of 15.3 lots per hectare. It is currently occupied by a single home on a large rural living block.

While the development is slated in a designated growth zone, it is another clear sign of seeming never ending appetite for new home and land packages.

"The City of Ballarat has a stated policy of trying to promote 50 per cent development as in-fill, and yet large scale development like this is occurring on the urban fringe, particularly in Ballarat's west," Professor Buxton said.

"What's happening there is replicated the worst of outer Melbourne's growth. You see single lot detached houses, standardised products with high site coverage. Yet you have poor access to jobs and problems with infrastructure. It makes a lot of money for the development industry and the land owners.

"It's easy for them to keep expanding in a city like Ballarat."

South Ward Councillor Des Hudson said while he was comfortable that this application, he said it was crucial the city look to variety going forward.

He said it was incumbent on developers to focus on livability over profit.

"It's always a contentious point, but the reality is the bottom end of Sebastopol, Bonshaw, Delacombe, we've been talking about for 8-10 years and the planning and construction has happened very quickly over time," Cr Hudson said.

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"You run the risk of the cookie cutter development, you want to see different experiences and not be driven by profit. Be driven by your legacy you create, be proud to drive past in 25 years to say I did that, I would like to live there."

Professor Buxton said another issue which will become important in coming decades is the importance on agricultural or 'peri-urban land' saying once it's gone, it can never be replaced.

In a book released in May last year, The Future of the Fringe: The Crisis in Peri-Urban Planning, Professor Buxton and Associate Professor Andrew Butt argue that rural land within 150km of city edges is essential for human survival this century.

"It's very important that we try and keep agricultural land closer to cities," he said.

"Climate change is finally being seen as a serious threat to Australia's food production. It's a win-win if cities can be prevented from sprawling. It's not a good model to put large numbers of people 5-6km from the Ballarat CBD."

Professor Butt said: "Currently, Melbourne's broader urban fringe provides nearly half of all vegetables, 67 per cent of eggs, most of the city's chicken, herbs and berry fruit, and 12 per cent of dairy".

"But urban sprawl and rural subdivision could halve Melbourne's peri-urban food production capacity from meeting 41 per cent of current food needs to just 18 per cent by 2050.

"All Australian cities depend on these peri-urban areas for intensive agricultural products. Building over productive land removes it permanently from production."

Ballarat Mayor Daniel Moloney said such developments are happening more and more across Ballarat as demand outweighs available land.

He holds concern that not enough variety exists in new growth zones. "Generally speaking, we need a good mix of houses," he said.

"The concern I've got is we continue to sprawl out without having enough of a focus on the genuine in-fill where people can live in the central business area where people can walk to work and to hospitality and retail venues.

"We've got a big focus on three or four bedrooms houses at the moment. We do need a good mix of houses. There's a lot of families moving to Ballarat, but also couples and singles, so getting the mix right is crucial."

Councillor Moloney said while he did not see Bonshaw as 'peri-urban' he agreed it was becoming more important than ever to protect agricultural land.

"We need to make sure there are limits on the sprawl, to avoid congestion on our roads, to make sure schools and health system can keep up, but also to protect the agricultural zones," he said.

"(This is necessary) particularly to the north and north west of the city. Even the northern growth zone, there's some hard limits on the growth out past Miners Rest."

Professor Buxton said Ballarat should learn from the mistakes Melbourne continues to make.

"Don't disregard the importance of heritage. Ballarat needs to keep every heritage building there if it wants to have a long term future," he said.

The Bonshaw application before council says "land is situated on the eastern side of Webb Road and currently comprises a single-storey dwelling and outbuildings to the north-western corner of the site.

"The site is also subject to the Ballarat West Precinct Structure Plan (BWPSP). As such, the surrounding area is transitioning from a low-density urban land to higher density urban land uses in accordance with the PSP."

To view the application, or any other planning application before council and have your say, head to https://www.ballarat.vic.gov.au/property/statutory-planning/planning/advertised-plans-and-planning-registers

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