Located less than 3km to the north-west of the central city, the Macaulay urban renewal area covers approximately 90-hectares of land and incorporates parts of Kensington and North Melbourne. Macaulay is a diverse, mixed-use area that is forecast to experience significant change over the next 15 – 30 years.

Many people will know the area from the Capital City Trail along the Moonee Ponds Creek, the Younghusband Woolstore in Kensington, community and recreational facilities in North Melbourne or the Public Record Office Victoria.

A structure plan is a planning document used to implement a framework or vision for an area. It includes the future layout of streets, parks, community facilities and development sites, and provides guidance around the types of buildings and land uses that are appropriate. It also provides contextual information about the local landscape, cultural values, policy, environment and economic drivers.

The Macaulay Draft Structure Plan Refresh (the draft Plan) translates the vision for Macaulay’s future into objectives and actions to guide how the precinct should develop in the short, medium and long term. It supersedes the Arden-Macaulay Structure Plan (2012).

Macaulay falls within the City of Melbourne’s local government area. We are involved in every planning outcome within its boundary and strive to ensure planning considers key principles that underline the city’s success. These include a sustainable, inventive and inclusive city that is vibrant and flourishing.

Melbourne’s population is predicted to grow to almost 8 million by 2050.

Close to Melbourne’s central city and with good access to public transport, Macaulay offers a significant opportunity to accommodate the new residents and jobs of a growing Melbourne. It is also located directly north of the Arden urban renewal precinct and new Arden Station that is due to open in 2025 as part of the Metro Tunnel Project.

A significant amount of the land in Macaulay is owned by private landowners and/or business owners. Government land ownership includes public housing, community and recreation facilities, the Public Record Office Victoria and Moonee Ponds Creek.

Yes. Land will be rezoned with a planning scheme amendment to support the vision for Macaulay as a mixed use residential and employment area. The type and location of zones will be determined through the final structure planning process, following community consultation on the draft and at the completion of further detailed planning.

Planning Scheme Amendment C190 implemented new land use and development controls for the Macaulay area in 2017 and 2018, as recommended in the 2012 Arden-Macaulay Structure Plan. The area was rezoned to encourage residential development and allow other uses such as shops and offices. The majority of sites in Macaulay are located within the Mixed Use Zone (MUZ). This has resulted in predominantly residential development. Future rezoning will help to ensure that Macaulay develops as a true mixed use neighbourhood.

Open space will be delivered in Macaulay by improving and expanding existing open spaces, revitalising the Moonee Ponds Creek corridor, providing new open space on larger land holdings and reallocating some roadway and parking in the street network.

All open space in Macaulay will provide a range of benefits including passive and active recreation and water sensitive urban design.

A floor area ratio is a type of planning control that sets a specific amount of development that can occur on a site. The floor area ratio is the ratio of a new building’s total floor area in relation to the size of the site it is being built on.

When combined with other built form controls, it allows for variation in the height and shape of buildings. This will help to ensure that new development is more responsive to its site and the characteristics of an area. The diagrams below explain the concept of floor area ratios and how it can result in different building types. For example, a floor area ratio of 4:1 allows for a total floor area up to four times the size of the site itself. This could be up to four storeys if 100 per cent of the site is developed or eight storeys if only half the site is developed. For larger sites, a floor area ratio also enables the delivery of new streets and open spaces. Some of the benefits of floor area ratios are they:

• provide greater certainty on future population and job growth to ensure that supporting infrastructure meets the needs of residents and workers
• enable the delivery of streets and open spaces on larger sites
• help deliver a range of building typologies.

The City of Melbourne declared a climate and biodiversity emergency in July 2019 and we have committed to reaching Council’s zero emissions target for the municipality 10-years earlier, by 2040.

Sustainability practices will change over the estimated 30-year timeframe of Macaulay’s development. Macaulay will be designed in a way to allow for the precinct to evolve with these changes in sustainable development.

Buildings in Macaulay will be built to a high level of energy, water and waste efficiency. The City of Melbourne’s Green Factor Tool has been developed to help with designing and constructing new buildings that are environmentally friendly and include green infrastructure.

Walking, riding bikes and easy access to public transport will be prioritised. Water can be celebrated as a feature of Macaulay. This can be achieved by incorporating stormwater treatment and reuse into streets and open space. Increased tree planting and urban greening will improve thermal comfort by shading and cooling the environment and increase biodiversity.

Macaulay adjoins the Arden urban renewal precinct. A separate structure plan is also being developed for Arden by the Victorian Planning Authority and the City of Melbourne. Arden and Macaulay each have a distinct role and character, however the plans are being developed to be complementary and co-ordinated together.

The interface between these two areas will be resolved as part of finalising the Arden and Macaulay Structure Plans and the planning controls.

Macaulay is one of many urban renewal areas at various stages of planning, development or completion within inner metropolitan Melbourne. These include Docklands and Southbank, priority precincts such as Arden and Fishermans Bend and other areas of change including West Melbourne and the City North area. In the future, planning will also occur for E-Gate and Dynon in the west. Together these areas will help to provide the homes, jobs, infrastructure and spaces needed to support the growing city.

Planning for the precinct has taken into consideration open space, flooding, diverse land ownership, heritage assets and contamination. Although these may be challenges for planning, these constraints also provide great opportunity to reflect the precinct’s identity in the future precinct.

A range of funding and delivery mechanisms will be required to enable the delivery of the infrastructure required to support the renewal of Macaulay. Some of the options might include:

• works funded and delivered by Victorian Government departments and agencies
• capital works projects delivered by or on behalf of the City of Melbourne
• utility service provider requirements (for example, Melbourne Water’s Drainage Services Scheme)
• development contributions
• open space contributions
• developer works – infrastructure and works which have a direct nexus to development and required to be fully funded by the developer as part of development of the land.

In addition to investment by the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne, developers
will be required to make contributions. These may be in the form of direct delivery for works directly supporting their site, or cash or works-in-kind for infrastructure identified under a contributions scheme.

To support the funding and delivery of key infrastructure items, a development contributions plan will be prepared. The development contributions plan will ensure that the cost of providing new infrastructure to meet the demands of the new population, is shared equitably between developers, the adjoining Arden Urban Renewal Precinct and the wider community. In the interim, Development Contributions will be secured via agreement in accordance with the DCPO2.

The timely delivery of key enabling infrastructure, utilities and community services will be critical to supporting the intensification of Macaulay.

Delivery projects will be identified for transport, integrated water management, community infrastructure, open space and public realm projects. Effective staging and coordination across infrastructure types will be required to enable efficient delivery.

A precinct infrastructure plan will be included in the Macaulay Structure Plan amendment package, providing a complete list of infrastructure items, including:

• new streets
• public realm upgrades to streets for cycling, public transport, pedestrian crossings
• open space comprising a mix of green links, small local spaces, local parks and the Moonee Ponds Creek
• drainage and integrated water management comprising a mix of levees, pipes, pumps, public realm water sensitive urban design features and flood storage measures
• community, recreation and education facilities.

Depending on your relationship to the precinct, you will be affected in different ways. If you are a resident, worker or visitor within the Macaulay area or in neighbouring suburbs, this planning will gradually change the area over a long period of time. You will notice changes as the plan is realised through future development.