The Peninsula’s population is growing. By 2036, there will be over 200,000 residents. This means the Peninsula will need around 1,200 new homes per year to provide enough housing.

The Shire has developed a sustainable approach to:

  • Meet the diverse range of housing needed for our community.
  • Direct future housing to appropriate areas.
  • Ensure the special values and character of the Peninsula are protected and enhanced.

We need to make changes to our Planning Scheme to implement this approach.

Planning Scheme Amendment C219morn proposes to make these changes by updating our residential zones and planning controls to ensure housing growth occurs in areas close to shops and services and away from environmental hazards like flooding and bushfires.

It recommends new controls for things like building height, siting, landscaping and fencing to ensure the design of new houses fits with the character of our neighbourhoods.

Amendment C219morn also proposes to simplify existing planning controls to make them easier to understand and reduce red tape, particularly to build or renovate one house on a lot.

Property Search

See how the amendment affects your property.

Meeting the housing challenge

The amendment is proposing changes to the existing residential zones to ensure changes to housing occur in appropriate areas.

  • Minimal change area

    Minimal housing change occurs in smaller townships or areas prone to environmental risks (e.g. bushfires, flooding and sea-level rise).


  • Incremental change area

    Incremental housing change occurs in all other areas.

  • Substantial change area

    Substantial housing change occurs in major townships (Mornington, Rosebud and Hastings) with more jobs, services and facilities.

How the residential zones will apply

The amendment will apply the residential zones as follows:

The amendment will rezone the existing GRZ in incremental or minimal change areas to the NRZ.

Protecting the Peninsula's special values and character

The amendment proposes to update the local planning controls that affect residential development. These controls relate to, for example:

  • building design
  • siting
  • landscaping
  • fences.

Future housing development will then respond better to the neighbourhood's preferred character.

Reducing the red tape for one dwelling on a lot

The amendment also proposes to reduce the cost and time to develop or extend one dwelling on a lot. This means updating specific Design and Development Overlays (DDOs) by removing:

  • permit requirements that deal with noncurrent issues
  • unnecessary or overly complex permit requirements
  • superfluous or redundant provisions.

Strategic work

The changes proposed under this amendment are supported by the following strategic work:

The amendment applies to:

  • all land in the GRZ except those affected by concurrent amendments, i.e. amendments C227morn, C269morn and C275morn
  • all land in the LDRZ
  • all land affected by Schedules 1 to 7, 11, 17 to 20, and 22 to 24 to the DDO.

The amendment is required to:

  • ensure the character of the Peninsula’s residential areas is protected and enhanced as the Shire’s population continues to grow
  • improve the operational efficiency of the Planning Scheme so that more applications for one dwelling on a lot can be processed under the Building Regulations without needing a planning permit.

You can inspect all documents relating to the amendment free of charge via the ‘Browse amendments – C219morn’ webpage on the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning’s website.

Viewing of Submissions

Exhibition of the amendment concluded on Friday, 29 October 2021. You can view all submissions below, which have been redacted to protect submitters’ privacy:

Independant Planning Panel

Council decided during the Planning Services Committee meeting on Monday, 24 October 2022 to refer submissions to a planning panel. The dates for the directions and panel hearings are as follows:

Directions hearing

  • 10:30 am, Monday, 21 November 2022

Panel hearing

  • Day 1, 10 am, Tuesday, 14 February 2023
  • Day 2, 10 am, Wednesday, 15 February 2023
  • Day 3, 10 am, Thursday, 16 February 2023
  • Day 4, 10 am, Friday, 17 February 2023
  • Day 5, 10 am, Monday, 20 February 2023
  • Day 6, 10 am, Tuesday, 21 February 2023
  • Day 7, 10 am, Wednesday, 22 February 2023
  • Day 8, 10 am, Thursday, 23 February 2023
  • Reserve Day (if needed), Monday, 27 February 2023
  • Day 9, 10:30 am, Tuesday, 28 February 2023
  • Day 10, 10:30 am, Tuesday, 7 March 2023

Hearings are conducted in person at the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council Chamber at 2 Queen Street, Mornington VIC 3931. They are also accessible by video conference using Zoom for parties who prefer to attend remotely via the video link or dial in (audio only).

Call: 03 7018 2005
Meeting ID: 845 2249 2629
Passcode: 900841

Where can I View Panel-related Documents

The following panel-related documents are available for download:

Next steps

Council will consider all submissions, including the panel’s report and recommendations, and decide whether to adopt or abandon the amendment. If Council adopts the amendment, with or without changes, the amendment is then submitted to the Minister for Planning for consideration and decision.

If you made a submission, we will update you on the amendment’s progress. If you did not make a submission but would like to receive notification of the amendment’s progress, please click ‘Follow’ on the amendment’s webpage.