Heidelberg planning changes

Published on 09 June 2025

The Minister for Planning has assumed planning responsibility for the Heidelberg Major Activity Centre (MAC), amongst an unprecedented number of major planning changes this year.

Heidelberg MAC is now one of 60 activity centres in the Victorian Government’s Activity Centres Program. This means that the Victorian Government is responsible for setting standards on things like height limits, front setbacks and land use in the area.

In February, Council asked the Minister to adopt a planning amendment for Heidelberg MAC, including guidelines on height limits, pedestrian accessibility and sensitivity to residential areas. This request appears to have been superseded by the Government’s decision to assume direct planning responsibility.

Council is still seeking to implement housing and neighbourhood character strategies to help protect residential amenity and the character of our local areas.

We’ll continue working with our community outside of the statutory planning framework on things such as biodiversity strategies. We are advocating to the Victorian Government for improvements to the recent planning reforms to better suit Banyule.

For more information on the Heidelberg MAC, visit Shaping Banyule.