City of Melton Features Prominently in North & West City Deal
The North & West Melbourne City Deal Plan 2020-2040 was launched on Monday 24 August and is the culmination of months of negotiations between the 13 Council areas covering Melbourne’s North and West.
The North & West Melbourne City Deal Plan is a blueprint for the region to create 300,000 new jobs, reboot business, boost social and economic inclusion, and leverage the region’s existing strengths in health, food production, manufacturing and logistics.
What is a City Deal?
The concept of City Deals is relatively new to Australia. To date there have only been 7 City Deals agreed to across Australia. The infrastructure.gov.au website defines a city deal as:
City Deals are a genuine partnership between the three levels of government (Local, State & Federal) and the community to work towards a shared vision for productive and liveable cities.
City Deals work to align the planning, investment and governance necessary to accelerate growth and job creation, stimulate urban renewal and drive economic reforms. City Deals will help to secure the future prosperity and liveability of our cities.
This proposal is a community effort to arrive at a joint list of priorities before consideration of formal MoU arrangements with Commonwealth, state and local governments.
The City of Melton has featured prominently in the plan, which recognises the important role the municipality will play as it continues to grow and provide new opportunities for investment and jobs creation. The plan sets our key projects according to scale and priority to the region. The three categories are: Priority Precincts; Transformative Projects; and Enabling Projects.
Priority Precincts
The Cobblebank Metropolitan Activity Centre (MAC) is identified as one of the 8 priority precincts in the plan.
Cobblebank is 36 km from the CBD, within the Melton LGA. The 2016 population in the City of Melton was 141,422 rising to 332,051 by 2036, an increase of 190,629. Planning and development of the regionally significant Cobblebank MAC is underway and will include the new 24-hour Melton Public Hospital, justice precinct, sports precinct, university and TAFE education, civic buildings, commercial office space, residential accommodation and 70,000 sqm of retail space.
Cobblebank will feature 20,000 dwellings, a population of around 55,000 and approximately 22,000 jobs. The Cobblebank MAC, together with the Western Intermodal Freight Precinct, will support significant investment attraction to increase employment and address local issues
For more details on the Cobblebank MAC read our recent Investment Spotlight article.
Transformative Projects
The plan identifies 16 transformative projects across the region, which are large scale projects that will benefit the entire region. From within the City of Melton, the identified transformative projects are:
New Melton Hospital
A 24-hour, cutting edge major public hospital in Melton will improve health outcomes and quality of life for one of Australia’s fastest growing municipalities and the broader region. Located within the Cobblebank MAC, the Melton Hospital will be managed by Western Health and be a catalyst for a major health and education precinct with both public and private hospital services.
Outer Metropolitan Ring
The Outer Metropolitan Ring Transport Corridor/E6 will be a 100 kilometre long high-speed transport link for people and freight. It will create better connections to key international transport hubs such as Melbourne Airport, Avalon Airport, the Port of Geelong and the proposed Beveridge Intermodal Freight Terminal and Western Intermodal Freight Precinct. A business case has been co-funded by state and Commonwealth governments.
Western Intermodal Freight Precinct
The Western Intermodal Freight Precinct will dramatically improve efficiencies in local, national and international freight movement by bringing national warehouse and freight precincts closer to freight terminals and industry. It will reduce the number of trucks and trains required to transport interstate freight into Port Melbourne, reduce congestion and attract investment to this major industrial precinct. Its construction is crucial to the Inland Rail project.
Western Rail Plan
The need for a fast, high capacity rail network to service the rapidly growing West and regional cities will include two electrified metropolitan rail lines in Melton and Wyndham Vale, with increased capacity between Sunshine and the CBD to cater for faster and more frequent metropolitan and regional trains. Project staging is being considered and will be incorporated alongside Melbourne Airport Rail Link planning.
Enabling Projects
There are also a further 50 Enabling Projects identified, which include a number within the City of Melton:
Western Highway Upgrade
The Western Highway in Melton is a critical arterial road link and economic driver at a metropolitan, state and national level. Funding is required to upgrade the Western Highway to an urban freeway standard with additional lanes and interchanges to enable efficient freight movements from the Western Intermodal Freight Precinct and reduce congestion.
Western Business Accelerator and Centre of Excellence Expansion
The Western BACE is a co-working space and business accelerator for start-up businesses. With a successful business model to assist businesses in their early growth phase, the opportunity exists to provide additional co-working space and meeting rooms supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.
The City Deal aligns with Council’s existing advocacy priorities and will add extra weight to advocacy campaigns which aim to direct government spending into our region. To view Council’s advocacy priorities visit the Council website.
The plan has been submitted to the federal and state governments for endorsement, which would allow all levels of government to collectively drive national priorities, address local needs, develop plans for growth and commit to shared actions.
For more details visit the North West Melbourne City Deal website where a range of resources and documents are available to view and download.
Bruce Marshall
Coordinator Economic Development & Tourism