Grange Planning Brain

title: Amendment C119moor - Maddingley Framework Plan council: moorabool state: vic category: amendment classification: MAJOR status: in-progress last_compiled: 2026-05-31 source_docs:

  • agenda-omc-17-december-2025_2.pdf
  • attachments-omc-17-december-2025.pdf
  • minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf
  • maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf

Amendment C119moor - Maddingley Framework Plan

Amendment C119moor is the first statutory step in turning the Maddingley Planning Study into planning scheme policy for land south of Bacchus Marsh, rather than a rezoning amendment that immediately changes land use rights. Its planning significance is that it creates the policy frame for a long transition from coal-mining and rural controls toward waste/resource recovery, industrial, light industrial, education and environmental-buffer outcomes, while leaving the higher-risk rezoning, overlay and infrastructure decisions to later phases. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.19-25; Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.8-10)

Background

The need for the Maddingley Planning Study was identified in the Bacchus Marsh Urban Growth Framework 2018, which was implemented into the Moorabool Planning Scheme through Amendment C81 on 6 December 2018. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, p.20) The study area sits immediately south of Bacchus Marsh and covers about ten square kilometres, with approximately 34 properties, about 13 dwellings, the JBD Industrial Estate, Calix, farming land and the Maddingley Waste and Resource Recovery Hub. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.8, 24)

The central planning problem is that the area has been controlled largely through Special Use Zone Schedule 1 for coal mining even though the contemporary land-use system now includes landfill, resource recovery, composting, materials recycling, industrial activities, rural land, school expansion interests and nearby residential growth. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.20-23; Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.24, 85-90) The Planning Study therefore acts like a map for sorting incompatible toys into separate boxes: the WRR hub and existing approvals stay protected, sensitive uses are kept away from odour, dust and landfill risks, and future industrial or education changes need their own evidence before rezoning. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.8-10, 64-68)

Council consulted on the draft study from 3 May to 1 July 2022 and received 17 written submissions from community members, landowners, businesses and agencies. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, p.22) The issues raised included protection of the state-significant WRR hub, recognition of coal and hard-rock resources, EPA buffer guidance, Aboriginal cultural heritage, Bacchus Marsh Grammar expansion, recycling/circular-economy policy, and objections to some proposed industrial rezonings. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.22-23)

Analysis

Statutory Mechanism and Phasing

C119moor is a Phase 1 policy amendment: it proposes to introduce local policy Clause 17.03-2L-02 for the Maddingley Framework Plan, update strategic directions for Bacchus Marsh and economic development, update local integrated water management policy, and list the Maddingley Planning Study as a background document at Clause 72.08. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.23-24) This means the amendment is not the point at which most land changes zone; it is the rulebook that later proponent-led Phase 2 and Phase 3 amendments must respond to. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, p.23; Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.186-192)

The study recommends three implementation phases. Phase 1 introduces policy and a strategic framework plan; Phase 2 reduces the extent of SUZ1 outside the Maddingley Brown Coal licence area and considers new controls such as SUZ6, IN3Z, DPO, BAO and possibly SRO; Phase 3 considers longer-term industrial rezonings where strategic justification exists. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.8-10, 186-192) The effect is deliberately staged because the study area cannot be responsibly rezoned as one simple employment precinct while sewer, drainage, electricity, transport, biodiversity, buffer and coal-resource questions remain unresolved. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.149-157, 175-183, 186-192)

Council resolved on 17 December 2025 to adopt the Maddingley Planning Study, seek authorisation from the Minister for Planning to prepare C119moor, exhibit the amendment after authorisation, allow minor non-substantive changes before exhibition, and authorise officers to liaise on issues raised through exhibition before reporting submissions back to Council. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, p.20) The current statutory position is therefore pre-exhibition: the amendment has council support to seek authorisation, but it has not yet completed public exhibition, panel consideration, adoption, ministerial approval or gazettal. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.20, 24-25)

Land Use Framework and Sub-Area Logic

The land-use framework is built around six sub-areas, not one uniform precinct. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, p.24) Sub-area 1 East is about 357 hectares, contains the Maddingley WRR Hub, is mostly owned by MBC, includes the EPA-licensed landfill/resource recovery/composting operations and active Mining Licence 4701, and is recommended for a new SUZ6 over the EPA licence and mining licence area rather than the existing coal-focused SUZ1. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.75-90)

Sub-area 2 South west is treated as a mostly rural and longer-term industrial investigation area because it contains Parwan Creek, Dog Trap Gully, native vegetation, the Brooklyn-Ballan high-pressure gas pipeline, approximately 40 million tonnes of estimated coal within the sub-area, and nearby dwellings. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.91-100) The short-to-medium recommendation is to retain most Farming Zone and SUZ1 controls while rezoning the Parwan Creek Water Frontage Reserve to Public Conservation and Resource Zone; the longer-term option is IN1Z/IN2Z north of Rowsley Station Road, subject to an industrial land supply and demand assessment. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.99-100)

Sub-area 3 West is the existing industrial core around the JBD Industrial Estate. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.101-108) The study records around 11 industrial tenants in the estate and recommends rezoning land south of Rowsley Station Road from IN1Z to IN2Z so heavier industry can be directed to land about 1,500 metres from the nearest General Residential Zone, while also noting that IN2Z notice and review exemptions would reduce community and landowner involvement for later applications. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.104-108)

Sub-areas 4, 5 and 6 are the main transition areas between Bacchus Marsh, Bacchus Marsh Grammar, the WRR hub and future Parwan Station planning. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.109-135) Sub-area 4 contains about 15 properties and eight dwellings, includes land acquired by Bacchus Marsh Grammar for possible sports, education, performing arts and car parking uses, and is recommended for IN3Z east of Osborne Street subject to industrial land supply and demand evidence, with possible SUZ4 for the school land only if EPA and Council accept a reduced separation distance and soil conditions are suitable. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.112-118) Sub-area 5 includes a main holding of about 60 hectares plus smaller East Maddingley Road properties, and the preferred future control is IN3Z with DPO, subject to industrial land supply and demand assessment. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.119-126) Sub-area 6 contains five properties, three dwellings and a cluster of 23 lots under 0.5 hectares, and is also directed toward IN3Z with DPO because C2Z would allow more sensitive uses than IN3Z. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.127-135)

Buffers, Agent of Change and Sensitive Uses

The most important planning mechanism is not zoning; it is the management of separation distances. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.54-68) The study identifies approximately 17 industries with recommended threshold or separation distances, with the two largest being MBC composting at 2,200 metres for odour and MBC coal mining at 2,000 metres for dust. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.54-56) The 2,000 metre coal-mining separation distance affects 2,406 properties in total, including 1,904 properties in sensitive zones outside the study area. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.55-56, 64)

The practical effect is that land-use change is controlled by the agent-of-change principle. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.64-68) If a new or expanded sensitive use needs approval inside a separation distance, the applicant would need to justify any reduction through technical evidence such as noise, odour, dust, dispersion modelling or odour testing. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.64-65) This creates a tension with the Bacchus Marsh settlement framework because some residential and mixed-use land within the separation distances allows dwellings or other sensitive uses as-of-right, while strategic policy also encourages infill and medium-density outcomes near the town centre, station and Maddingley Park. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.65-66)

The amendment’s neutral planning role is therefore to warn the scheme about the conflict before later rezonings intensify it. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.23-24; Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.64-68) A future Buffer Area Overlay is identified as a possible Phase 2 tool, but the study notes that buffer overlays need technical work, meaningful mapped boundaries and guidance before they can operate fairly across large numbers of properties. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.66-68, 188-191)

Infrastructure Dependencies

The amendment does not itself fund infrastructure, and that is a major constraint on implementation. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.149-157) The study area has no reticulated sewerage, limited reticulated water, no formal drainage infrastructure, and limited electricity substation capacity. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.8, 24, 141-152) Greater Western Water advised that significant sewer augmentation would be required, including a new sewer pump station for industries in the JBD Industrial Estate, increased pipe capacity west of the railway line, and a large new pressure sewer for major industry planned with the Parwan Employment Precinct. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.150-151)

The transport network is also under-sized for urban or intensive employment uses. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.138-148) Most internal roads are rural standard, several are unsealed, the Tilleys Road/Geelong-Bacchus Marsh Road intersection and South Maddingley Road/Parwan Road rail-crossing intersection are identified as short-term issues, and major traffic-generating development may require upgrades to rail crossings at Kerrs Road, Rowsley Station Road and Osborne Street. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.146-148) The future Eastern Link Road would improve access to the study area and adjacent growth precincts, but the study records no funding commitment and unclear timing. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.145-146)

Because future development timing is uncertain, the study finds that a development contributions plan is not yet suitable. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, p.153) Instead, it recommends project-by-project contributions through permit conditions or Section 173 agreements until development patterns become clear, with an Integrated Transport Management Plan to identify road upgrades, costs, land requirements and triggers. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.153-156)

Coal, Circular Economy and Environmental Limits

The study accepts that coal mining will continue within existing approvals but takes an in-principle position against new open-cut coal mining beyond Mining Licence 4701. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.159-173) This position is based on the proximity of dwellings, schools, Bacchus Marsh urban land and future growth areas, plus uncertainty about acceptable separation distances, rehabilitation bonds, work plans and the State Government’s long-term position on the resource. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.163-172)

The environmental constraints are material rather than incidental. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.175-183) Areas of high environmental value are concentrated in Sub-areas 4 and 5 and along Parwan Creek in Sub-areas 1 and 2, while areas of moderate value occur in Sub-areas 1, 2, 3 and 5. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.175-179) The study also records endangered vegetation communities, threatened fauna records including Growling Grass Frog, possible habitat for Victorian Grassland Earless Dragon, and limited detailed field assessment to date. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.176-179)

Waterway controls also shape later rezoning. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.180-183) The study recommends avoiding development within 50 metres of the top of bank of Parwan Creek, planning vegetated drainage corridors or reserves of at least 30 metres on both sides of waterways or as determined by the drainage authority, and investigating corridor protection for Parwan Creek, Dog Trap Gully, Maddingley Park Drain and the unnamed waterway through Sub-areas 4 and 5. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.180-183)

Current Status

On 17 December 2025, Council adopted the Maddingley Planning Study and resolved to seek ministerial authorisation for Amendment C119moor. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, p.20) After authorisation, Council intends to exhibit the amendment for about 40 business days with notice to affected owners, occupiers, ministers, authorities and the wider community, then report submissions back to Council and potentially refer unresolved submissions to an independent planning panel. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.24-25)

Dependencies

  • Blocks: Phase 2 and Phase 3 rezonings rely on the Phase 1 framework because later site-specific amendments must align with the Maddingley Strategic Framework Plan and Planning Study recommendations. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, p.23; Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.186-192)
  • Blocked by: Exhibition, consideration of submissions, any panel process, ministerial approval and gazettal remain outstanding for C119moor. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.20, 24-25)
  • Informed by: The amendment is informed by the Maddingley Planning Study, 17 submissions on the draft study, EPA 1949, EPA 1950, EPA organic-waste guidance, agency consultation and prior Bacchus Marsh UGF/C81 work. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.20-23; Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.8-10, 54-68)
  • Implements: It implements the Phase 1 policy recommendations of the Maddingley Planning Study by adding local policy, strategic directions, integrated water management updates and background-document recognition. (Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.23-24)
  • Conflicts with: The main unresolved policy tension is between protecting coal and WRR activities, managing EPA separation distances, enabling employment land, and avoiding sensitive-use encroachment near Bacchus Marsh, Bacchus Marsh Grammar and future Parwan Station growth. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.64-68, 127-135, 159-173)

The amendment depends on state and utility actors beyond Council. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.186-192) EPA, Recycling Victoria, DEECA, DTP, Greater Western Water, Melbourne Water, Powercor, APA Group and Department of Transport all hold roles that affect whether later rezonings can proceed. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.149-157, 186-192) The most important cross-boundary infrastructure relationship is with Parwan Employment Precinct and Parwan Station, because sewer, water, Eastern Link Road, arterial access and buffer planning need to be coordinated with those growth areas rather than solved parcel by parcel within Maddingley. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.67-68, 145-157)

Gaps in This Analysis

The attachment source for the council meeting package contains the table of contents and page markers for the Maddingley attachments, but the extracted text does not expose the detailed text of Attachment 2 Summary of Submissions or Attachment 3 C119moor Draft Planning Scheme Ordinance and Explanatory Report. (Source: attachments-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.364-416) This limits analysis of the exact exhibited ordinance wording, the full submission-by-submission issue weighting, and any clause-level drafting choices beyond what is described in the officer report. (Source: agenda-omc-17-december-2025_2.pdf, pp.20-25; Source: minutes-omc-17-december-2025.pdf, pp.19-25)

Several technical inputs referenced by the study are also not available as primary source documents in this compile set, including the Bacchus Marsh Environmental Assessment, Bacchus Marsh Strategic Bulky Goods Retail Assessment, EPA Licence 45288 attachments, the approved mining work plan, Eastern Link Road Planning Study, industrial land supply and demand review, transport management plan, infrastructure servicing plan, drainage scheme, biodiversity field surveys and any future BAO/SRO technical assessments. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.145-157, 175-183, 186-192) These gaps mean the page can identify the mechanisms and dependencies, but it cannot quantify final road costs, sewer costs, drainage-basin land take, DCP-style levies, biodiversity offsets, or exact buffer overlay boundaries. (Source: maddingley-planning-study_october_2025_updated.pdf, pp.149-157, 175-183, 186-192)

Current-Status Guardrail

This is a material planning-signal page, but production legal-status advice requires the final approval, gazette, EES/assessment or adopted implementation record to be cited on the page. Until that evidence is present, use this page for mechanism and dependency intelligence rather than final operative-law status.

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