Rural Strategy - Surf Coast Shire

Surf Coast Shire Rural Strategy Review
Final Report
10 Delivering the Vision
This section of the report identifies the implementation measures to deliver the vision and
strategic directions for the Surf Coast Shire. This Rural Strategy Review found that the
current Planning Scheme was robust, well justified, generally supported by the community
and was achieving the strategy objectives. Therefore, the implementation measures
proposed in this Rural Strategy do not represent a significant shift from the current policy
position.
The current policy position for the rural areas has placed a strong emphasis on protecting
land for agricultural purposes. While it acknowledges the importance of landscapes, it does
not provide implementation measures to achieve landscape protection. This has been
achieved incidentally through the minimum lot size schedule and tenement provisions.
There is no direction with respect to tourism development in rural areas.
The revised rural strategy will seek to maintain and support agriculture, while acknowledging
that for many this is for lifestyle purposes, elevate the importance of landscape protection for
both economic and social reasons and provide appropriate opportunities for tourism in rural
areas.
10.1 Surf Coast Planning Scheme
To implement these objectives and strategies, the rural areas of the Shire have been
segmented into a number of Rural Precincts to reflect the diversity of landscape and
agricultural values and the current rural land uses and rural land use trends discussed in
Sections 4 and 5 of this report.
The future rural land use outcomes being sought by Council and the community vary across
the Shire. Precincts allow for the planning controls to be tailored to meet the specific land
use outcomes desired within each precinct rather than a ‘one-size-fits all’ approach.
The land within each precinct has common characteristics that will influence application of
the planning controls. The characteristics that were considered in defining the precincts
include:
Current land use;
Settlement patterns and urban development
Allotment and tenements sizes;
Agricultural quality;
Landscape characteristics and objectives; and
Environmental values.
Each precinct has been described with respect to each attribute. The land use
considerations, strategic directions and planning controls to implement the strategic
objectives for each precinct are detailed in sections 9.6 to 9.11.
Map 7 shows the location of the five rural area precincts. Map 8 shows the location of
relevant overlays across the Shire.
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