title: Elmore Water Pressure, Sewerage and Stormwater Growth Constraints council: greater-bendigo state: vic category: growth-area classification: MAJOR status: in-progress last_compiled: 2026-05-31 source_docs:
- agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf
Elmore Water Pressure, Sewerage and Stormwater Growth Constraints
Elmore’s immediate growth constraint is not a single mapped growth-front issue; it is the cumulative servicing question raised when modest infill housing is assessed in a small-town infrastructure setting. The available evidence comes from a five-dwelling application at 27 Hervey Street, where objectors raised low water pressure, partial sewerage, septic capacity, stormwater detention, surface-water flooding, and fire-service concerns, while Council’s drainage referral supported approval only subject to underground drainage, stormwater quality, stormwater detention, and a Section 173 maintenance agreement (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73, 75, 88-89).
The deeper planning implication is that Elmore’s Structure Plan is being prepared while the planning permit system is already testing whether multi-dwelling housing can be serviced on existing township lots. The source does not contain a town-wide water, sewer or drainage capacity assessment, so this page treats 27 Hervey Street as an early signal of township-wide infrastructure stress rather than as proof of a quantified network limit (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73, 75).
Background
The available source is the Greater Bendigo Council meeting agenda for Monday 15 December 2025, item 8.3, concerning planning application DR/227/2025 for five dwellings on one lot at 27 Hervey Street, Elmore (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.68). The site is 1,012 square metres, vacant since at least 2001 according to historic aerial imagery cited in the officer report, and located in the Township Zone with no overlays (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-69). The site sits in western Hervey Street, approximately 250 metres west of the Campaspe River, which forms the municipal boundary between Greater Bendigo and Campaspe (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.69).
The proposal is for five single-storey brick veneer dwellings arranged in tandem, with one dwelling fronting Hervey Street and four dwellings behind it (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.69-71). The development mix comprises two two-bedroom dwellings of 90 square metres and 73 square metres, and three one-bedroom dwellings of 57 square metres each (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.70). The officer report recommended that Council issue a planning permit subject to conditions, and stated that the relevant elements of the Townhouse and Low-Rise Code were met, meaning objectors would not have VCAT review rights on the deemed-to-comply standards (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68, 80).
Strategic Planning advised that an Elmore Structure Plan is currently being developed, that the study area includes 27 Hervey Street, and that the structure plan will set guidelines for how the town should develop over the next 30 years (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73). The same referral noted that detached dwellings account for over 99% of houses in Elmore, that most houses are on large lots with three to four bedrooms, and that average occupancy is 2.1 people per dwelling (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73). Strategic Planning also advised that community engagement had identified support and need for unit housing in Elmore, provided it is well designed and respectful of town character (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73).
Analysis
Infill Housing Demand Is Arriving Before the Servicing Evidence Is Public
The 27 Hervey Street application converts one 1,012 square metre vacant Township Zone lot into five dwellings, meaning the proposal would create an effective density of approximately 49 dwellings per hectare on the subject land before allowing for streets or wider precinct infrastructure (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-70). That site-specific density is materially different from Elmore’s existing dwelling pattern as described by Strategic Planning, where more than 99% of housing is detached and most dwellings are larger three- to four-bedroom houses on large lots (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73).
The mechanism is straightforward: when a large-lot detached-house settlement pattern begins accepting smaller one- and two-bedroom dwellings, the number of service connections, roof areas, paved areas, vehicle movements and wastewater disposal points can increase faster than the land area changes. At 27 Hervey Street, five dwellings are proposed on one lot, so one parcel becomes a cluster of five households requiring drainage, wastewater, water supply and access arrangements to operate within a single 1,012 square metre envelope (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-70, 88-89).
This does not prove that Elmore has no remaining servicing capacity, because the agenda does not provide network modelling or water authority advice. It does show that servicing capacity is already a live planning issue for ordinary infill applications, because objectors specifically raised water pressure, aged water infrastructure, fire safety, partial sewerage, septic or treatment plant needs, stormwater detention and surface-water flooding (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.75).
Water Pressure Is a Hard-Service Question, Not Only an Amenity Concern
Objectors stated that Elmore has existing low water pressure issues, that aged water infrastructure may not support additional dwellings, that water pressure may affect fire safety standards, and that previous developments required booster pumps to meet CFA standards (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.75). The officer report records those concerns but does not include a water authority referral, a pressure-zone map, hydraulic modelling, minimum service pressure results, or confirmation of firefighting flow capacity (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.72-75).
The planning mechanism is that water pressure affects whether additional dwellings can be practically connected without private booster infrastructure, network augmentation, or fire-service design responses. If pressure is marginal, each additional dwelling can be small in land-use terms but still material in service-demand terms because the new dwelling adds a separate household and potentially additional simultaneous demand on the local water main (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.70, 75).
The available agenda does not state whether Council or a servicing authority tested potable water pressure for the five-dwelling design. That is an important analytical gap because Strategic Planning supports unit housing in Elmore in principle, while objectors are identifying a possible infrastructure threshold that could limit how broadly that housing model can be repeated across the town (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73, 75).
Sewerage Is the Most Material Gap in the Evidence Base
Objectors stated that Elmore has a partial sewer system and that each dwelling may require its own septic tank or treatment plant (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.75). They also raised the absence of details about septic system location and maintenance, the practicality and cost of servicing for lower-income residents, and whether the site can accommodate the necessary wastewater infrastructure (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.75).
For a five-dwelling proposal on a 1,012 square metre lot, sewerage is not a background technical matter; it is a land-capability question. If reticulated sewer is unavailable or only partially available, the same site area must accommodate dwellings, car parking, driveways, private open space, landscaping, stormwater detention, and any required on-site wastewater systems (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-75, 88-89). The source does not provide an endorsed wastewater layout, a land capability assessment, a septic setback plan, or servicing authority advice confirming whether 27 Hervey Street can connect to sewer (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.72-75, 88-90).
This is the key unresolved issue for the forthcoming Elmore Structure Plan. Strategic Planning has identified a need for more diverse housing, and the 27 Hervey Street proposal directly responds with one- and two-bedroom units, but the sewerage evidence in the available source is limited to objections rather than a capacity assessment (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.70, 73, 75). If Elmore’s sewerage coverage is incomplete, the structure plan will need to distinguish between lots that can support multi-dwelling infill through reticulated sewer, lots that require on-site wastewater solutions, and lots where wastewater constraints materially reduce feasible housing yield (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73, 75).
Stormwater Management Is Being Shifted to Site-Level Controls
Council’s Engineering - Drainage referral raised no objection, but only subject to standard conditions for underground drainage, stormwater quality, stormwater detention, and a Section 173 agreement for maintenance of the stormwater detention system (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73). The recommended permit conditions require detailed drainage plans showing underground drainage, stormwater quality, stormwater detention, an allowable discharge of Q10% = 7.6 litres per second, and a point of discharge (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.88).
The practical mechanism is that Council is not treating the existing drainage network as a reason to refuse the five-dwelling proposal, but it is requiring the applicant to manage discharge rate, water quality, underground drainage and long-term detention maintenance as conditions of approval. The Section 173 agreement would require the owner to maintain each detention or quality system, not modify it without prior written approval, allow authorised Council officers to inspect it, and pay all costs associated with construction and maintenance of each on-site detention or water quality system (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.88-89).
This is a site-by-site mitigation model rather than a documented town-wide drainage upgrade model. It can work for individual applications if detention assets are properly designed, built, maintained and inspected, but the source does not show whether cumulative infill across Elmore has been modelled against local drainage capacity or flood behaviour near the Campaspe River (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.69, 73, 75, 88-89).
Flood and Drainage Concerns Are Present but Not Quantified
Objectors raised concerns about unclear stormwater detention plans, surface-water flooding risk from increased density, and doubt about whether the site has sufficient space for detention facilities (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.75). The site is approximately 250 metres west of the Campaspe River, and the Campaspe River forms the boundary between Greater Bendigo and Campaspe municipalities (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.69).
The source does not identify a flood overlay on the site, because the officer report records that the land has no overlays (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.68). However, the absence of an overlay in the agenda is not the same as a town-wide drainage capacity finding, because the report does not include flood modelling, catchment plans, drainage asset condition data, or cumulative impervious-area modelling for Elmore (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-75, 88-89).
The structure plan process is therefore important because it can move the issue from reactive permit conditions to strategic infrastructure planning. The available evidence indicates that Elmore is being asked to accommodate more diverse housing, but the public source does not yet show where drainage upgrades, detention corridors, overland flow paths or flood-sensitive infill limits will be located (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73, 75, 88-89).
Planning Scheme Reform Narrows the Permit-Level Debate
The officer report states that Planning Scheme Amendment VC267 changed Clause 55 by introducing the Townhouse and Low-Rise Code, including a deemed-to-comply assessment pathway for townhouses and apartment buildings up to three storeys (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.76). The report states that if an application meets the relevant deemed-to-comply metrics, the decision maker cannot refuse the application on those elements and objectors have no third-party VCAT review rights on the deemed-to-comply standards (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.76-77).
The effect for infrastructure constraints is important. Residents can identify water pressure, sewerage and stormwater concerns through objection, but the officer report explains that appeal rights are significantly curtailed where deemed-to-comply standards are met, and any appeal rights are limited to issues related to areas of non-compliance rather than the development as a whole or issues such as traffic or drainage (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.76).
This means the strategic planning process carries more weight for Elmore’s infrastructure questions. If water, sewerage and stormwater constraints are not resolved through the Elmore Structure Plan, the permit system may continue to handle them through conditions and site-specific referrals rather than through a clear settlement-wide servicing sequence (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73, 76, 88-89).
Housing Diversity and Infrastructure Capacity Are Now Linked Policy Questions
Strategic Planning supported the 27 Hervey Street proposal because community engagement identified support and need for unit housing in Elmore, and because the proposal was considered generally consistent with the identified character through low scale, setbacks, landscaping, driveway arrangement and canopy-tree planting opportunities (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73). The same report records that the site is appropriately zoned for residential development and is considered a strong medium-density candidate because of access to supermarkets, schools, parks and Elmore Railway Station (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.77).
The planning tension is that the site appears well located in land-use terms but contested in servicing terms. A site can be close to services and still be constrained if water pressure, wastewater disposal, stormwater detention or fire-service requirements are unresolved at the lot or network scale (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73, 75, 77, 88-89).
The structure plan will need to translate this tension into spatial policy. If Elmore needs smaller dwellings for smaller households, the planning framework must identify which parts of the town can accommodate that housing form without pushing unresolved infrastructure costs or maintenance obligations onto individual lots in an ad hoc way (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73, 75, 88-89).
Current Status
As at the 15 December 2025 Council agenda, officers recommended issuing a planning permit for five dwellings at 27 Hervey Street subject to conditions (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68, 80). The agenda records five objections and a consultation meeting held between the applicant and objectors on 28 October 2025 (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68, 75). The source does not include the final Council resolution, any subsequent permit issue date, or any post-meeting changes to conditions (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-90).
The broader Elmore Structure Plan was in preparation at the time of the agenda, with Strategic Planning stating that the study area includes 27 Hervey Street and that the plan will guide town development over the next 30 years (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73). The source does not include the structure plan, background infrastructure studies, consultation report, implementation program, or servicing strategy (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73).
Dependencies
- Blocks: Unresolved evidence on Elmore’s water pressure, sewerage coverage, on-site wastewater feasibility and drainage capacity could limit how confidently the Elmore Structure Plan can direct additional multi-dwelling housing into existing township areas (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73, 75).
- Blocked by: A complete assessment is blocked by the absence of a water authority servicing assessment, sewer network coverage map, land capability or wastewater assessment, stormwater catchment model, and cumulative infill drainage analysis in the available source (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.72-75, 88-90).
- Informed by: The current evidence is informed only by the 27 Hervey Street officer report, internal drainage referral, Strategic Planning referral, objections, and proposed permit conditions (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-90).
- Implements: The proposal aligns with Council Plan Mir wimbul 2025-2029 Theme 3, Goal 3.2 for vibrant and liveable towns and Goal 3.3 for housing that meets different needs, as cited in the officer report (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.80).
- Conflicts with: The source records a tension between Strategic Planning support for well-designed unit housing in Elmore and community objections concerning density, water pressure, sewerage, stormwater, drainage, pedestrian access, rural character and amenity (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.73-75).
Cross-Jurisdictional Links
The Campaspe River is approximately 250 metres east of 27 Hervey Street and forms the municipal boundary between Greater Bendigo and Campaspe (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.69). That boundary position matters for future drainage and flood analysis because stormwater and riverine flood behaviour are catchment issues rather than purely municipal issues, but the available source does not include Campaspe Shire material, catchment management authority advice, or a cross-boundary drainage assessment (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.69, 75, 88-89).
The available source does not identify the relevant water authority, sewerage authority, catchment management authority, CFA advice, or any state agency infrastructure program for Elmore (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-90). Those omissions limit any cross-jurisdictional assessment of whether infrastructure constraints are localised to Hervey Street, distributed across Elmore, or connected to wider regional servicing systems (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-90).
Gaps in This Analysis
This page is constrained by a thin source base. The manifest provides one council agenda extract, and the agenda contains a single planning application rather than the town-wide infrastructure studies needed for a full growth-constraints assessment (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-90).
The critical missing document is the Elmore Structure Plan or its working draft, because the agenda states that Strategic Planning is developing a structure plan for the town over a 30-year horizon but does not include the plan itself (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73). The missing structure plan limits assessment of preferred growth locations, housing change areas, staging, infrastructure triggers, drainage corridors, and implementation responsibilities (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, p.73).
The second critical gap is a water and sewer servicing assessment. The agenda records objector concerns about low water pressure, aged water infrastructure, partial sewerage, septic or treatment plant needs, and fire safety, but it does not provide hydraulic modelling, sewer capacity data, water pressure testing, CFA advice, or servicing authority conditions (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.72-75).
The third critical gap is a stormwater and flood assessment for Elmore. The agenda records objector concerns about stormwater detention and surface-water flooding, and it imposes a 7.6 litres per second Q10% allowable discharge condition for 27 Hervey Street, but it does not provide a catchment model, overland flow mapping, drainage asset capacity data, or cumulative infill scenario testing (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.75, 88-89).
The fourth gap is the final Council decision and any issued permit. The agenda contains the officer recommendation and proposed conditions, but it does not confirm whether Council adopted the recommendation, amended conditions, refused the application, or deferred the matter (Source: agendas-and-meeting-minutes-city-greater-bendigo-council-meeting-agenda-december-15-2025.pdf, pp.68-90).