SUMMARY: 

Public land bounded in part by the coastline of Port Phillip is, in the direction along the coast, generally long, but its width between that coastline and other land abutting it is usually very much less. Much of the limited and, in relation to population growth, increasingly inadequate area of public coastal land is very close to that abutting land. Increasingly, the appearance and nature of developments on that abutting land close to its boundary with the public land are having adverse effects on the amenity of the coastal land. 

Legislation should require that, of the abutting land nearest the public land, a minimum width, which could be termed a Planned Planting Area, be subject to certain restrictions on its future development in order to improve the impact of that abutting land on the amenity of the coastal land, and limit adverse impacts, even if compensation is necessary. For the purposes of this policy a public road reservation is regarded as part of the public coastal land if the land between it and the coast is all public land. 

DETAIL: 

Minimum Width of Planting Area: The minimum width of the Planned Planting Area abutting the above boundary, for which legislation should restrict future development, should be eight metres. This distance gives room for large trees to provide suitable screening of developments on the abutting land. It is less than the front setback from boundaries that has applied to land in Victoria for many years. 

Height of Fences, Walls and other Structures: No further fence or wall should be built on the Planned Planting Area or on its boundaries, other than the landward-most one, with any part of it being at a height of more than one metre above ground level, unless the part above that height is of an open lattice or mesh construction with the majority of the elevation area being open, to enable vegetation to be planted behind it and to be noticeable and visible from the public land. In no case should any such fence or wall above two metres in height be built on the Planned Planting Area. No further structures should be built on the Planned Planting Area to a height greater than one metre above ground level. 

Ground Coverage on the Planting Area: The Planting Area is instituted to let vegetation be retained and established on it. Its natural ground surface must therefore, apart from the minimum necessary path and driveway into the landward part of the property, not become extensively paved, surfaced or covered with water. Barriers must be built and maintained to prevent access to the Planting Area by vehicles. The Planting Area must not have goods, materials or waste occupying it at any time. 

Vegetation on the Planting Area: Planning authorities should encourage, possibly by incentives, the removal of incompatible development and environmental weeds, the retention of other existing vegetation, and the planting of predominantly indigenous vegetation of a range of sizes, and species. 

ADOPTION: 

This original version of PPCC Inc. Policy Statement No. 3 was adopted by a General Meeting of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. on 27th April 1998.