Amendment to Zoning Supported in Dead Horse Lane
Published on 20 May 2022
Council has resolved to support the rezoning of part of the land at 104 Dead Horse Lane, Mansfield from Farming Zone to General Residential 1 Zone, as identified in the Mansfield Planning Strategy. The rezoning and development of the land will make more efficient residential use of land that is accessible to central Mansfield, allowing a full range of urban services to be more efficiently and cost effectively provided to the land.
The Mansfield Planning Strategy 2022, adopted by Mansfield Shire Council earlier in the meeting, identifies a shortage of land supply that the Mansfield Township is experiencing and the pressures that exist due to an identified housing affordability crisis. The rental and social housing shortages are also exacerbated at the local level, adding to the pressures of housing availability and driving property market prices up. New housing stock has continued to outperform the numbers estimated in previous supply and demand estimates outlined under both the Mansfield Township Housing Strategy, April 2018, and the Mansfield Town Structure Plan 2015 leading to the current shortage of available land that can be readily developed.
The Mansfield Town Structure Plan 2015, discouraged residential rezoning for the short to medium term (10 years). Nearly 8 years have now elapsed since that plan was developed, and the passage of time has demonstrated that this timeframe was significantly overestimated given the current need for the new rezoning of residential land. The Structure plan forecast that 45 new homes would be required each year until 2035, and that only 900 new homes would be required by 2031. Mansfield Shire has had over 100 homes constructed every year since 2012, with 1,200 new homes built between 2011 and 2021 – more than double what was predicted.
The Mansfield Township Housing Strategy (April 2018) predicted that the population of Mansfield would grow by 1.6% to reach a population of 4098 by 2031. This was less than the Structure Plan’s prediction of a 2% growth rate. In data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2020, Mansfield had experienced a 3.3% population growth, with the current population of Mansfield being 5,421 – 1,323 more people than anticipated and 9 years earlier than predicted.
“It is these significantly underestimated predictions that have had a major impact on land availability and affordability in Mansfield. While the Mansfield Planning Strategy has measures to address this, the timeframes for implementation are longer than this amendment and will not assist in addressing the immediate issues faced in relation to housing in Mansfield quickly enough, leading to this site-specific amendment. Supporting this amendment will help facilitate available land sooner to support our growing community” said Mayor Tehan.