Comprehensive Development Zones (CDZ) in Victoria

The Comprehensive Development Zone (CDZ) is a specialised planning tool used for large-scale mixed-use developments. In particular, it supports customised land-use projects that don't fit the restrictions of standard zones.

CDZs provide flexibility for complex projects, streamline planning processes, and assist long-term urban regeneration in areas where strategic changes are planned. They allow more efficient and integrated land use across these sites, and help align major developments with Victoria’s broader planning and infrastructure goals.

In this article, we’ll explore what the CDZ is, how it fits within Victoria’s planning system, and why its role may become increasingly significant as cities grow and evolve.

What is the Comprehensive Development Zone?

Victoria’s Comprehensive Development Zone (CDZ) supports strategically located large-scale, mixed-use projects across the state. It is part of the Victorian Planning Provisions (VPPS), a series of standard provisions that underpin Victoria’s planning schemes.

More specifically, the CDZ is a flexible planning tool for developing custom, site-specific building projects. Each CDZ plan guides land usage and building requirements, sets design guidelines, and develops staging plans for an individual project.

The establishment of these site-specific plans helps deliver clear, reliable planning outcomes for complex projects where other planning schemes won’t work. Common CDZ applications include urban renewal precincts, former industrial sites, and major government land holdings. The plans aim to assist integrated development, allow for effective long-term urban regeneration, and encourage more strategic land use.

So, in essence, a CDZ acts as a bespoke development blueprint, setting out:

What uses are permitted (residential, retail, commercial, community infrastructure, etc.)

Building heights, setbacks, and design expectations

Transport and infrastructure contributions

Staging and delivery timelines

And because it is flexible, the CDZ can combine elements from different zones and adapt them to the context of a specific site.

Key Characteristics of the CDZ

A CDZ differs markedly from Residential, Commercial, and Mixed Use zones, which all apply a standard set of controls across a project. CDZs on the other hand incorporate:

1. Site-Specific Controls

Each CDZ is unique. The planning scheme sets out a schedule and framework based on what is planned for that specific site. This permits a far higher degree of planning and design specificity that would be difficult to achieve with standard zones.

2. Enables Mixed-Use Development

A CDZ can incorporate a mix of residential, commercial, recreational, and public uses within a single zone. This allows more diversity and integration at a community level, something that isn't always possible in other zone types.

3. Flexible but Controlled

Although more flexible in terms of development options than other zones, a CDZ is still subject to strict planning processes, and also requires community engagement. Most developments within a CDZ require a permit, and they must comply with the detailed conditions set out in the zone schedule and associated documents.

4. Encourages Master planning

CDZs are usually linked to a broader blueprint for an area, like a Development Plan or a Precinct Structure Plan (PSP). They are used to bring to life a vision that has already been shaped through thorough expert planning and significant community input.

5. Used in Strategic Locations

CDZs are usually applied to areas of high redevelopment potential such as inner-urban precincts, ex-industrial sites, or under-utilised government land. They support major regeneration projects that contribute to broader metropolitan planning goals.

Benefits of Comprehensive Development Zones

CDZs have many advantages that make them a valuable tool for shaping future urban development in Victoria. These include:

1. Site-Specific Planning Outcomes

A CDZ allows councils and developers to customise zone controls and produce highly responsive, site-specific plans. It means projects can be developed to fit the particular needs of a community, observe specific site conditions, and respect long-term development goals and visions.

For example, planners can factor in a site's natural features and topography, like waterways or changes in elevation, and adapt land use to suit. This approach directly benefits the environment by protecting natural areas and integrating green spaces. It also benefits local communities by creating more attractive, functional, and flexible places to live and interact.

2. Better Liveability and Integrated Communities

The CDZ model encourages the development of dynamic, mixed-use neighbourhoods where residents have easy access to work, shops, schools, health services, and recreational facilities. They encourage:

Walkability with improved health outcomes for residents

Less reliance on private vehicles

Stronger social connections

Better overall quality of life with safer, greener, more connected facilities

3. Environmental Sustainability and Less Urban Sprawl

Under a CDZ, compact, higher-density 'infill' development close to existing major public transport networks reduces the need for new infrastructure, and also helps limit urban sprawl. This protects valuable farmland, natural bushland, and threatened wildlife habitats close to urban areas.

Fewer vehicles on the roads also help lower transport-related emissions, reduce energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions.

4. Diverse and Affordable Housing Choices

CDZs improve the supply, availability, and variety of housing options for residents to help control housing price growth and keep it more affordable. They also cater for a broader range of household types, lifestyles, ages, and income levels.

Encouraging and developing variety within a community like this is important for Australia’s diverse population.

5. Economic Growth and Investment Certainty

A CDZ drives economic growth and bring more foot traffic to an area by making essential services, shops, and transport more accessible to residents. Their structured planning frameworks and clear development stages also attract investors and developers looking for long-term certainty.

6. Alignment with Broader Strategic Planning Goals

CDZs deliver large-scale housing schemes, employment precincts, and comprehensive urban regeneration projects. They directly support and align with important state and local government strategic frameworks like Plan Melbourne 2017–2050 and ensure major developments contribute in a cohesive way to Victoria’s overall planning, infrastructure, and sustainability objectives.

Why CDZs Matter in Victoria’s Urban Future

As Victoria faces unprecedented population growth and urban consolidation pressures, the need for well-planned, flexible, large-scale development tools has never been greater. The CDZ allows for the kind of long-range, strategic, and bespoke thinking and planning needed to reshape existing multifaceted sites into future-ready communities. They offer:

Clear frameworks for development,

Valuable consultation between invested parties

Strong urban design principles.

Where Are CDZs Currently in Use?

CDZ’s are not new innovations per se. Over the past 2 decades, they’ve already begun to play a vital role in delivering high quality, connected, and sustainable multi-use development. For instance, since the early 2000's projects encouraging infill development, and medium-density housing have caused Melbourne’s inner suburbs to jump from around 3,000 to 4,000 people per km² . They’ve also begun to curb the outward sprawl of low-density residential outer suburbs and focused on housing development in previous industrial areas and under-utilised government land.

Major CDZs of note include:

1. Arden Urban Renewal Precinct (CDZ1)

Arden is a 50-hectare precinct located just north of the Melbourne CBD. A former light industrial area, it is being transformed into a high-density, mixed-use urban centre. With the new Arden Metro Station providing an important transit link into the CBD, Arden is expected to eventually provide some 34,000 jobs and support up to 15,000 residents.

2. Docklands

Most of the Docklands area in inner Melbourne is already part of a series of CDZs. This has allowed a long-term, staged development approach across multiple landowners. Currently Docklands supports a large mix of uses including waterfront apartments, sports stadiums, retail complexes, and recreational facilities.

Docklands was one of the first CDZ developments established in Melbourne. It has been instrumental in bringing more people back into inner city areas to live and work.

3. Monash National Employment and Innovation Cluster (NEIC)

The Monash National Employment and Innovation Cluster (MNEIC) is situated around Clayton and Huntingdale about 20kms southeast of the CBD. Part of the Monash Municipality, the area is best known as the location of iconic Monash University, the CSIRO, the Australian Synchrotron, and the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication.

Major healthcare facilities located here include the Monash Medical Centre and Victorian Heart Hospital. There are also many technology and advanced manufacturing industries, particularly in pharmaceuticals and biotech.

Managed by a series of CDZs, the MNEIC has been transformed from a collection of diverse functions into a seamless blend of education, research, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and residential areas. It currently employs some 75,000 people, and this is expected to double by 2050.

The Monash Municipality itself has just over 78,000 homes and the state government plans to increase this to at least 150,000 by 2050 to support the increase in jobs and employment opportunities in the MNEIC.

4. Fishermans Bend

Fisherman's Bend is Victoria's (and Australia’s) largest urban renewal project. It covers approximately 480 hectares to the southwest of Melbourne’s CBD, and incorporates 5 separate precincts across parts of the City of Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip:

Lorimer Precinct (mixed use)

Montague Precinct (mixed use)

Sandridge Precinct (predominantly residential)

Wirraway Precinct (predominantly residential)

Fishermans Bend National Employment and Innovation Precinct (NEIC) (mixed industrial and commercial)

Each precinct is governed by its own bespoke CDZs that factor in the unique characteristics of that area, whether it's as one of Melbourne's historic working class residential areas (Sandridge and Wirraway), or historically industrial (Fisherman's Bend Innovation Precinct - former site of General Motors Holden, and also home to Boeing, Siemens, and some major Defence research facilities).

How CDZs Fit Within Victoria’s Planning Framework

Comprehensive Development Zones (CDZs) are part of a broad suit of planning and housing tools that are modernising urban areas, and urban planning, in Victoria. Specifically, they will help deliver on the targets outlined by:

Plan Melbourne 2017–2050

The Victorian Housing Statement (2023)

The 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy by Infrastructure Victoria

Collectively, CDZs emphasise compact, connected, and inclusive growth but where other planning tools tend to adopt a single strategy for an area, a CDZ takes a bespoke, one-on-one approach. It encourages smarter, integrated land use that both supports and improves the immediate environment and draws on what makes it unique and different to create an attractive, multi-purpose place for people to live and work.

Challenges and Considerations

Comprehensive Development Zones have some obvious advantages for complex projects but they also come with risks and limitations that need to be properly managed:

Transparency and Oversight

Due to their bespoke nature, CDZs often override most common planning provisions. This can lead to public concerns about reduced third-party appeal rights or inadequate community consultation.

Implementation Complexity

Writing and managing a CDZ is a complex significant undertaking that requires time, various areas of expertise, and comprehensive coordination between government, developers, and stakeholders.

Risk of Overdevelopment

If not carefully controlled, the type of medium to high-density development that occurs under a CDZ could lead to poor amenities, lack of open space, and even traffic congestion.

Consistency Across Precincts

As each CDZ is bespoke, the quality and enforceability of controls may vary, and lead to inequitable outcomes across different developments.

Managing these issues needs tough, specific design controls and inclusive strategic guidelines. It also required dedicated specialist expertise, thorough coordination, and constant stakeholder engagement throughout the planning and implementation stages.

Conclusion

The Comprehensive Development Zone is not a blanket solution but part of a substantial toolkit that, where used appropriately, is a powerful planning tool. Over the past few decades, it has helped turn under-utilised urban areas in Victoria into productive, thriving mixed-use neighbourhoods where people can live, work, and play.

CDZs have also helped address some of the major environmental concerns associated with Australia's historical unchecked urban sprawl by attracting people and businesses back into re-vamped inner city areas and reducing the development of car-dependent outer suburbs.

For planners, developers, councils, and communities alike, understanding the scope and structure of the CDZ will be critical as Victoria’s cities continue to grow, change, and adapt to future needs.

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