Melbourne 2030

Melbourne 2030 is a Victoria State Government strategic planning policy framework for the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Australia intended to cover the period 2001–2030. During this period the population of the metropolitan area is expected to grow by a million people to over five million. Population projections now predict Melbourne's population could reach seven million by that time and the government has since changed its strategy on the policy, abandoning the urban growth boundary in the north and west of Melbourne and reducing green wedges.

Introduced by the Bracks government, its main elements are based on well-established planning principles for Transit-oriented development:

• reducing the proportion of new development occurring at low densities on Melbourne's fringe from about 60% of annual construction to 40% by redirecting new development to defined areas of established inner and middle-ring suburbs.
• concentrating development within designated activity centres close to transport nodes. The policy has particular emphasis on public transport over car-based suburbs dependent on the private motor car. However the strategy itself does not detail further investment in the public transport system.
• reducing urban sprawl by establishing legislated urban growth boundaries, with the aim of containing urban development.
• protecting areas of open space known as green wedges left between areas defined by the urban growth boundaries from development.^[1]

The existence of Melbourne 2030 gives the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) the policy rationale to determine planning disputes in favour of developments that it judges to be in accordance with the metropolitan strategy's objectives.

The policy was amended in late 2008 to become Melbourne @ Five Million in response to increased population forecasts and an increased demand for housing. The update provisioned for an extended growth boundary^[2] and is reinforcing the aim of a multi-centre metropolitan area by lifting the hierarchic level of six Principal Activity Centres (PAC) to Central Activities Districts (CAD). The centres of Box Hill, Broadmeadows, Dandenong, Footscray, Frankston and Ringwood^[3] will thus have to provide similar services and functions as central Melbourne.