Metropolitan Melbourne Investigation Discussion Paper - Victorian ...

4.4 Public land use
categories
An evolving suite of public land use categories has been
developed by VEAC and its predecessors in order to
describe and recommend public land use across the state
(see below). Each public land use category defi nes the
primary purpose of the land and the range of permitted
uses. This may be refl ected in the reservation purpose
and legislation for Crown land (e.g. national parks are
established under the National Parks Act 1975). Public
authority freehold land is held for a primary purpose
undertaken by that agency. Many public authorities
manage a mixture of Crown land and freehold land.
VEAC has classifi ed public land into the following major
land use categories:
G parks primarily set aside for nature conservation —
national and state parks, wilderness parks, marine
national parks and marine sanctuaries, and some
other parks
G nature conservation reserves — fl ora, fl ora and fauna,
and non-hunting wildlife reserves
G private protected areas — Trust for Nature
conservation properties
G historic and cultural feature reserves — historic reserves
G regional parks including, in Melbourne, metropolitan
and coastal parks
G natural features reserves —bushland areas, stream
frontages, wildlife areas and wetlands, streamside areas
and scenic reserves, lakes, mineral springs and caves
G state forest — including areas allocated as hardwood
production areas
G coastal reserves and offshore coastal waters reserve
G community use areas — recreation reserves, parklands
and gardens, and community buildings such as
schools, libraries and public halls
G water production areas — water storage reservoirs and
bulk distribution facilities
G services and utilities areas — roads, railways, sewerage
services, pipelines, cemeteries, police stations, court
houses, public offi ces, hospitals, public housing,
municipal buildings and depots
G uncategorised public land — no committed use,
but subject to investigation, a future public use may
be determined
G other categories — those not in this investigation
area including alpine resorts, national heritage park,
forest park, softwood and hardwood plantations, earth
resource areas.
In addition to public land use categories, there are three
types of overlay that may be applied to public land.
These are heritage rivers, reference areas and declared or
proclaimed water supply catchments. Each is described in
section 4.6.
4.5 Current public land use
Current public land use across the investigation area
is shown on map A and described below. Table 4.2
opposite shows the extent of land within each of the
major public land use categories in the investigation area.
In some places these land uses are formalised through
legislation, by existing Crown land reservation or previous
government approved public land use recommendations
of one of the LCC or ECC investigations referred to in
section 4.3. In other cases, there may not be a legal or
formal mechanism in place which refl ects the accepted
current use for particular sites. For this reason VEAC
has provided in Part E general recommendations for the
relevant land use categories that confi rm existing public
land use across the investigation area as depicted on
map A. There are also a small number of sites for which
changes to public land use are proposed and these are
outlined in Part E of this discussion paper, together with
the general recommendations for the relevant public land
use category.
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