title: West Maddingley Development Plan council: moorabool state: vic category: strategy classification: MAJOR status: approved last_compiled: 2026-05-31 source_docs:
- addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf
- approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf
- west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-1-of-2.pdf
- west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-2-of-2.pdf
- west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf
West Maddingley Development Plan
The West Maddingley Development Plan is an approved Development Plan Overlay implementation framework for a large residential growth area at Stonehill, Bacchus Marsh, structured around three related plan parts rather than one consolidated text document (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3). Its planning effect is spatial and procedural: it fixes the broad pattern of residential land, movement corridors, open space, drainage, conservation areas, activity-centre land, school and community land, and further-investigation land that later subdivision and permit decisions must work within (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
Background
The approved plan set sits within the Moorabool Planning Scheme as a development plan approved under Clause 43.04, with the approval stamp recording that the endorsed Development Plan forms part of the Moorabool Planning Scheme material approved by Council resolution (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3). The plan area is in West Maddingley at Stonehill, Bacchus Marsh, adjoining existing residential areas, the Bacchus Marsh West Golf Course, the Bacchus Marsh Racecourse and Recreation Reserve, existing industrial land, McCormacks Road, Griffith Street, Werribee Vale Road and the Werribee River corridor (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
The plan is divided into at least three parts. Part 1 is the broad Stonehill development plan, approved as part of the Development Plan Overlay material and shown at a 1:4000 A1 scale and 1:8000 A3 scale, with a date of 2 August 2011 on the plan sheet (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1). Part 2 is a more detailed subdivision-focused plan for land described in the source sheet as West Maddingley Development Plan Part 2, with the approval stamp dated 30 November 2011 (Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-2-of-2.pdf, p.1). Part 3 is a later SMEC-prepared plan sheet for the Stonehill area, issued on 1 July 2019 as Revision B1 and labelled West Maddingley Development Plan - Part 3 (Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
The 2022 addendum is not a new whole-of-precinct strategy; it is a site context plan for a 6 lot subdivision at Stonehill, Maddingley, prepared for Gull Group by Beveridge Williams, issued for information on 23 June 2022 and labelled preliminary print, not for construction (Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1). The addendum identifies an additional site area added to the WMDP for future residential subdivision within a red boundary, connecting the later site-specific subdivision process back to the approved development plan framework (Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1).
Analysis
Statutory Mechanism and Practical Effect
The controlling mechanism is the Development Plan Overlay, not a freestanding policy statement: the approved plan sheets are stamped as forming part of the endorsed development plan under Clause 43.04 of the Moorabool Planning Scheme (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3). In practical terms, this means the plan operates as the spatial test for later planning permits: subdivision layouts, road reservations, open-space placement, conservation land, activity-centre land and community-facility land need to be assessed against the endorsed development plan pattern rather than designed from a blank site (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3).
The plan is deliberately indicative in some respects. Part 1 states that the plan is based on preliminary information and may change after formal Council or authority advice, detailed site investigations and confirmation by survey (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1). Part 3 repeats the same qualification, stating that the plan is based on preliminary information and may change after detailed site investigations, survey confirmation and formal Council or authority advice (Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1). That caveat is important because the plan gives statutory structure to the precinct while preserving room for detailed engineering, drainage, survey and authority requirements to alter the final subdivision geometry (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
The plan set therefore works like a map-based rulebook. It does not, in the extracted material, provide a full written infrastructure schedule, development contributions calculation, staging trigger table or servicing report (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1). The absence of those written mechanisms limits how far the available corpus can explain funding responsibility, delivery triggers and authority dependencies (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
Land Use Structure and Yield
Part 1 establishes a mixed residential growth structure rather than a single-density subdivision. Its legend distinguishes large lot residential, conventional residential, medium-density potential within those categories, an integrated development site subject to separate planning approval, school and community land, an activity centre, public open space, an existing homestead and surrounds, a Buloke conservation area, native grassland, retained trees, and drainage or waterways (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1). The plan also identifies a further-investigation area within Part 3, meaning not all land was resolved to a final subdivision pattern at the time the broader layout was endorsed (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
Part 2 provides the clearest quantified yield evidence in the available source set. The proposed subdivision sheet for Essence Bacchus Marsh identifies an overall area of 13.80 hectares, 142 residential lots, an average lot size of 607 square metres and 5 medium-density housing sites (Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-1-of-2.pdf, p.1). The residential lot schedule allocates 14 lots between 400 and 499 square metres, 53 lots between 500 and 599 square metres, 55 lots between 600 and 699 square metres, 15 lots between 700 and 799 square metres, and 5 lots at 800 square metres or greater (Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-1-of-2.pdf, p.1). The schedule therefore shows that the largest share of conventional lots is in the 500 to 699 square metre range, with 108 of 142 lots, or about 76 percent of scheduled lots, falling in those two bands (Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-1-of-2.pdf, p.1).
That Part 2 yield should not be treated as the yield for the whole West Maddingley Development Plan. It applies to the mapped Part 2 subdivision sheet, while Part 1 and Part 3 cover a broader development-plan geography with several residential cells, open-space corridors and further-investigation land (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-1-of-2.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1). The available corpus does not provide a whole-of-plan land budget, net developable area, total dwelling yield, density target or open-space percentage, so any whole-precinct yield estimate would be an extrapolation beyond the source documents (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
Movement Network and Access Dependencies
The movement plan makes road hierarchy one of the main structuring devices. The Road Hierarchy and Movement Plan identifies an indicative sub-arterial road at 34 metres, an indicative connector street or 32 metre boulevard, indicative collector street Level 1 at 24 metres, indicative collector street Level 1 at 16 metres, indicative local streets at 16 metres, a potential bus route, shared paths, controlled intersections and open space (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.2). The plan includes typical cross-sections for local streets, collector streets, the connector street boulevard and the sub-arterial, showing that the development plan reserves different corridor widths for different movement functions (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.2).
The access logic is east-west and north-south, with Griffith Street and McCormacks Road forming important edge conditions and the plan connecting back toward existing Bacchus Marsh residential and industrial areas (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-2). The broad plan also labels Bacchus Marsh town centre as approximately 2.2 kilometres away, which indicates that the precinct is planned as an urban extension tied to the existing town rather than as a detached settlement (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1).
The controlled-intersection symbols on the road hierarchy plan indicate that subdivision delivery is likely to depend on intersection treatments at key internal and external nodes, but the available source set does not include a traffic impact assessment, road-upgrade cost estimate or trigger schedule (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.2). The mechanism-level implication is that the plan fixes the corridor and node pattern, while the timing, funding and warrant for upgrades remain unresolved in the available evidence (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.2).
Open Space, Drainage and Environmental Constraints
The largest spatial constraint visible in the plan set is the open-space and drainage network. Part 1 shows a continuous green corridor through much of the development area, with drainage or waterways mapped through that corridor and along low-lying parts of the site (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1). Part 3 also maps public open space, the extent of native grassland, a Buloke conservation or revegetation area, existing trees to be retained, drainage and waterways, and 1 metre contours (Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
This means the plan uses environmental and drainage land as a structuring spine rather than treating it as leftover land. The Werribee River corridor is mapped along the northern edge of the broader area, and drainage or waterway corridors run through the planned open-space network (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1). The planning consequence is that lot layout and road alignment are shaped by waterway, drainage and conservation areas before detailed subdivision occurs (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3).
The source set identifies a Buloke conservation area and native grassland, but it does not include a flora and fauna assessment, native vegetation offset report, conservation management plan or Cultural Heritage Management Plan (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1). Part 3 identifies CHMP 11479 boundary, which confirms that Aboriginal cultural heritage management is relevant to at least part of the plan geography, but the CHMP itself is not included in the manifest and cannot be analysed from the available text (Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
Community Infrastructure and Activity Centre Role
The land-use plan reserves land for school and community use and separately identifies an activity centre (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1). These are not decorative labels: they show that the plan intends local services and community infrastructure to be embedded within the residential extension rather than provided only in the existing Bacchus Marsh town centre (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1). The plan also identifies an integrated development site subject to separate planning approval, which means at least one major non-standard site was intentionally kept outside ordinary residential subdivision treatment (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1).
The available documents do not state the area of the activity centre, the area of the school and community site, the intended school type, the timing of delivery, the responsible public authority or whether any land is to be transferred through permit conditions or another mechanism (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1). This is a material analytical gap because social infrastructure delivery can determine whether residential staging produces a complete neighbourhood or a housing estate that relies on external facilities (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1).
Addendum and Later Boundary Change
The 2022 addendum is a site context plan associated with a 6 lot subdivision at Stonehill, Maddingley, and it identifies additional site area added to the West Maddingley Development Plan for future residential subdivision within a red boundary (Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1). The plan is prepared by Beveridge Williams for Gull Group, issued for information on 23 June 2022, and marked preliminary print, not for construction (Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1).
The addendum sits at a different level of detail from the 2011 and 2019 plan sheets. It shows existing and proposed servicing symbols, including stormwater, swale drainage, sewer, house drains, service conduits, electricity, gas, optic fibre, water, recycled water, overland flow, retaining walls, pavement treatment, structural fill and driveways (Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1). That servicing legend suggests the addendum is closer to subdivision engineering context than strategic growth-area planning, but the extracted text does not provide a written statement explaining why the boundary addition was made or how it changes the endorsed development plan yield (Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1).
Current Status
The available source documents show the West Maddingley Development Plan as approved through Moorabool Planning Scheme Development Plan Overlay material, with plan sheets carrying approval stamps and Council-resolution references (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-2-of-2.pdf, p.1). The plan has continued to evolve at least through the Part 3 SMEC plan issued on 1 July 2019 and the 2022 addendum identifying additional WMDP land for future residential subdivision (Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1; Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1).
The source set does not include a current council report, permit register extract, amendment explanatory report or gazettal notice, so the present-day implementation status of each stage cannot be verified from the manifest alone (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1). The safest status classification for this page is approved, with implementation details unresolved in the available corpus (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3).
Dependencies
- Blocks: Later subdivision layouts that are inconsistent with the endorsed road hierarchy, open-space network, conservation areas, drainage corridors, activity-centre land, school and community land, and further-investigation areas are constrained by the approved development plan structure (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
- Blocked by: Detailed implementation depends on Council and authority advice, site investigations, survey confirmation, servicing design and unresolved further-investigation-area outcomes (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
- Informed by: The manifest source set includes the approved development plan sheets, Part 2 plan sheets, Part 3 plan sheet and a 2022 addendum plan, but no written background studies or infrastructure assessments (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1).
- Implements: The plan implements Development Plan Overlay planning for West Maddingley under Clause 43.04 of the Moorabool Planning Scheme (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3).
- Conflicts with: No direct policy conflict is identifiable from the available source set, but the plan contains internal implementation tensions between residential yield, conservation land, drainage corridors, public open space, road reservations and further-investigation areas (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
Cross-Jurisdictional Links
The available documents show authority dependencies but do not identify cross-council coordination. The plan sheets expressly reserve the possibility of changes after formal Council or authority advice, and the addendum servicing legend includes sewer, water, recycled water, electricity, gas, optic fibre, drainage and overland-flow elements that would normally involve infrastructure authorities or utility providers (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: addendum-to-the-west-maddingley-development-plan.pdf, p.1). The Werribee River and mapped drainage corridors create potential links to catchment management and waterway authorities, but the responsible agencies and approval requirements are not named in the source documents (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
Gaps in This Analysis
This page is constrained by a thin, plan-sheet-heavy source set. The approved West Maddingley Development Plan PDF contains three image-based pages with no extracted body text, and the Part 2 PDFs are also image-based plan sheets rather than written reports (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-1-of-2.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-2-plan-2-of-2.pdf, p.1). The available documents do not include a planning report, officer report, Development Plan Overlay schedule, amendment history, traffic assessment, drainage report, biodiversity report, cultural heritage management plan, servicing report, open-space assessment, development contributions plan or staging agreement (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1).
The largest analytical gap is the absence of a whole-of-plan land budget. Without gross area, net developable area, open-space area, conservation land area, road-reservation area and total dwelling yield, the plan can be analysed spatially but not fully quantified across the entire West Maddingley Development Plan geography (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, pp.1-3). A second gap is infrastructure timing: the road hierarchy identifies 34 metre, 32 metre, 24 metre and 16 metre corridors, controlled intersections and a potential bus route, but no source in the manifest states upgrade costs, delivery triggers or responsible delivery parties (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.2). A third gap is environmental implementation: the plan maps Buloke conservation, native grassland, retained trees, waterways and CHMP 11479, but the underlying ecological and cultural heritage documents are not included (Source: approved_west_maddingley_dp.pdf, p.1; Source: west-maddingley-development-plan-part-3-approved-signed-hb.pdf, p.1). These gaps should be recorded in _gaps as priority missing material for any future full compilation of West Maddingley and Stonehill.