By AIDAN KNIGHT

 

LATROBE City Council has moved a motion to follow up on the South East Traralgon (SET) Precinct Structure Plan.

This concerns an area that has been partially zoned as buffer for the Loy Yang mine.

Deputy Mayor Dale Harriman (Jeeralang Ward) opened his moving of the motion at last month’s council meeting (held Monday, March 23) by apologising to the land owners in the area, as this has been an ongoing discussion with no visible progress since 2010, when the location was first identified for a residential zoning future.

It was partly rezoned in 2012, and draft plans were endorsed by council in 2021, before being sent off for Ministerial approval.

In 2024, EPA guidelines expanded the separation distance from brown coal mining to residential zones, from 1km to 2km.

“Those land owners have been pushing to have this land rezoned,” Cr Harriman continued, “the holdup has been – we can’t seem to get an answer out of a number of ministers’ offices. The Minister of Planning has been sitting on this.”

Council agenda documents however show the Minister for Planning, Sonya Kilkenny, provided written advice dated December 15, 2025, in response to a mayoral request sent on September 29 that same year.

The correspondence states council should continue working with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), and that the Minister was unable to provide in-principle support for the amendment at that time. It also indicates support would depend on advice from the Minister for Energy and Resources, Lily D’Ambrosio effectively placing the next stage of consideration with that portfolio.

Cr Harriman skirted around this during the meeting, going on to say “we have been waiting for a report to come back for the Minister responsible for the mines for over four years”, because of the geotechnical risk.

Cr Harriman also stated that the SET was the most prioritised area for rezoning within council’s crosshairs in 2021, and that council have been waiting for a response ever since.

“Five years is just too excessive,” so Cr Harriman was keen to present the following proposed steps:

1. Await response from Minister for Energy and Resources. Council will wait for a formal decision regarding the third-party peer review of geo-technical risk, which is essential for progressing the Planning Scheme Amendment.

2. Consider next steps after ministerial advice. Once the response is received, council will determine the appropriate course of action to move the precinct development forward.

3. Provide a progress report. Council officers will present an update on the precinct’s status and next steps to council by March 31, 2027.

“To the land owners involved, I know another 12 months seems excessive,” Cr Harriman said, adding it was council’s best solution while “trying to get a response from the ministers responsible”.

“We are crying out for land availability at the moment. We don’t have enough houses for rent, we don’t have enough housing for development, or supporting businesses wanting to come to this region.”

Tyers Ward councillor Darren Howe spoke in support, calling the proposal “the best of a bad group of choices”.

The vote was unanimously in favour.

The matter is now dependent on further input from Minister D’Ambrosio.