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Town planning in the Mornington Peninsula Shire.

Mornington · Somerville · Hastings · Dromana · Rosebud · Sorrento · Red Hill

The Peninsula is planned deliberately differently from the rest of metropolitan Melbourne: a chain of townships separated by green wedge, with the scheme's overriding purpose being to keep it that way. Township boundaries are firm, the Green Wedge Zone covers the rural balance, and coastal design controls shape what the towns themselves can absorb.

For landowners that produces distinctive questions — what a green wedge property can lawfully be used for, how far a township lot can be developed inside the design and landscape controls, and how bushfire and vegetation rules shape everything from Red Hill to the back beaches.

We have worked on the Peninsula for decades — our long-running involvement with the Somerville shopping centre precinct among the larger examples — and the throughline of Peninsula practice is respecting the township-and-wedge structure: applications framed as though the Peninsula were ordinary suburbia fail, while those that work within its logic find councils and VCAT receptive.

The planning framework

Controls you'll commonly meet in Mornington Peninsula.

Every property is different — these are the zones and overlays that most often shape applications in this municipality. Each links to the current ordinance in the Mornington Peninsula planning scheme.

FAQs

Questions we’re asked most.

If you have a question that’s not here, call us — we answer honestly, whether or not it leads to work.

  • Agriculture, rural living where a dwelling is available, and a defined list of rural-appropriate uses — but not conventional subdivision or urban development, and the minimum lot sizes are deliberately large. Some uses people assume are available, like group accommodation or function centres, need careful permit strategies. What the zone schedule and the lot's history allow is the first thing to establish.

Got a site, a permit, or a refusal on your desk?

An obligation-free conversation is the fastest way to see if we can help. We respond within 24 hours — usually much sooner.