The City of Melbourne has prepared Planning Scheme Amendment C173 at the request of the University of Melbourne to enable the development of a sustainability and innovation hub, known as the Carlton Connect Initiative.

The amendment seeks to change the zoning of the land from its current Public Use Zone to the Capital City Zone, accommodating new research, development and education facilities in addition to community, commercial, residential and retail spaces and student housing.

The amendment will include a Development Plan Overlay (DPO) to guide the long term development of the hub. As required by the City of Melbourne, urban design standards have been included in the plan to ensure that the Carlton Connect Initiative development is high quality, environmentally sustainable and displays exemplary architecture.

The University of Melbourne is seeking to create Australia’s largest innovation hub to support education, research and engagement activities. The Carlton Connect Initiative will establish linkages between researchers and industry, government, venture capital and global networks.

The research activities at the Carlton Connect Initiative will focus on issues such as energy, food security, water, cities, climate change, and building more resilient communities through innovation.

The initiative will be located at the former Royal Women’s Hospital site – bounded by Swanston, Grattan and Cardigan streets, Carlton.

A planning scheme is a legal document that sets out planning policies, zones, overlays and other rules affecting how land can be used and developed in the municipality. It sets out what we can and cannot do on different areas of land in the city; for example whether the land can be used for housing, or a shop or business, what should the height of a building be, and how much open space should be provided.

As our city grows and changes, planning controls may be changed or updated to reflect the new circumstances. A change to the planning scheme is known as an amendment.

The process for an amendment is set out in the Planning and Environment Act 1987. The amendment process has a number of steps. The step-by-step guide below (will need to change this reference based on design lay-out) is designed to give you a basic understanding of the major steps involved in the amendment process.

Three main buildings currently occupy the former site with a height range up to 47 metres. As a result of the amendment, the building height of the new development will range from 25 metres to 59 metres.