General News
1 August, 2023
Cobden’s future planned for
COBDEN’S future has been laid out with Corangamite Shire Council adopting the Cobden Structure Plan and Cobden Aerodrome Master Plan.
COBDEN’S future has been laid out with Corangamite Shire Council adopting the Cobden Structure Plan and Cobden Aerodrome Master Plan.
At last week’s Ordinary Meeting of Council, councillors gave the green light for the plans to be submitted to the Minister for Planning after extensive community consultation.
Shire manager planning and building services Aaron Moyne said 10 submissions had been received following exhibition of the amendment.
“The amendment was prepared following a comprehensive process for the preparation of the Cobden Structure Plan, which involved technical and planning assessments, community and stakeholder input and review by the project working group,” he said in his report to council.
“Three rounds of public consultation occurred prior to the amendment being exhibited.”
The Cobden Structure Plan is a key strategic plan for Cobden’s future, providing a long-term land use planning framework for Cobden over a 15-20 year horizon.
Mr Moyne said the strategic need to prepare the Cobden Structure Plan rose from the Council Plan 2021-25, which identified the importance of delivering more housing and subdivision to cater for population growth, along with key infrastructure and services.
“The Cobden Structure Plan places a strong focus on enabling and facilitating the delivery of available, market-ready land to cater for new housing and population growth,” he said.
“The Cobden Aerodrome Masterplan 2022 sets out the long-term vision and operations of Cobden Aerodrome.”
Councillor Jo Beard thanked those involved in the project.
“I really want to take the opportunity to thank the project working group, it was a significant process we went through and we will be doing the same thing in other communities,” she said.
“I want to thank every community member that engaged with us.
“There was a lot of transparency and engaging with the community so everyone felt part of it, which I think was really important so we then feel like we helped create this document and helped come up with the vision on how we want Cobden to look going forward.”
Cr Beard said she believed there had been a “lot of interest from developers to help create house market in Cobden”.
“We need all our communities to grow and this is one way that we can facilitate that,” she said.
Cr Geraldine Conheady said the plan was “hugely important for protecting Cobden”.
“This has been a huge and really important strategic plan to future proof Cobden, and as Cr Beard explained, it’s been a really exhaustive process.
“It’s a fantastic position that we’re in that we’re ready to go to the minister.”