Whittlesea council is investigating rezoning a pocket of land in the Peter Lalor Housing Co-Operative Precinct.
Councillors will submit a request for a zone change to an independent ministerial panel for a parcel of land bounded by Station, Vasey and David streets.
The panel will write recommendations on the application based on the housing diversity strategy created by the council last year.
The council is requesting that the land be rezoned from neighbourhood residential to general residential zone in line with the state government’s residential zone reforms.
If the land is rezoned, under the council’s current planning scheme the changes would allow for “moderate housing growth and diversity”, land to be subdivided, and a building height of nine metres to be allowed, compared to the existing eight-metre limit.
Under the proposal, all other zones in the housing estate will be retained.
But Cr Sam Alessi opposed the zone changes and said as a post-war residential
precinct the area should remain as a neighbourhood residential zone to protect the heritage significance and character of the estate.
There were 120 submissions made about the Lalor precinct, with one submission including a petition of 97 signatures opposing the zone change.
But more than 100 submissions supported the changes.
The proposal will be assessed by the independent panel with its recommendations being tabled by the council later in the year.
