Council
14 June, 2024
Plan for Skipton’s future adopted
CORANGAMITE Shire Council adopted the Skipton Structure Plan at last month’s council meeting, ensuring the growth and development of the town for the next 10 years.
Councillors voted to adopt the final version of the plan at its May meeting, aiming to provide the council, and the Skipton community with the vision, strategies and actions required to manage long-term growth.
Councillor Nick Cole said the process of developing the Skipton Structure Plan had been “interesting”.
“We’ve had many meetings up there, and there’s been a lot of people come along and have input at various meetings,” he said.
“It’s all been sort of pulled together and spat out the other end as a structure plan.
“I think it’s an exciting thing to see. Skipton’s got a lot of opportunity and chances.
“It’s a very, very scenic little town with the Emu Creek running through the middle of it and its closeness to Ballarat is great – close enough to commute, but far enough away to not be a problem to get away.”
Cr Cole said the 43-minute drive to Ballarat provided the benefit of the “country sort of relaxed lifestyle” to residents, but other things still needed to be improved on.
“The structure plan is not aiming to fix things overnight, but it’s a part of setting the town up for future development and future growth,” he said.
“That’s going to take a little bit of time to get going, but it’s a step in the right direction.
“It’s identifying the areas that the town can grow and how it can grow, and what it needs.
“It’s part of the deal with getting Skipton back on track and keeping on going in the right direction.”
Cr Ruth Gstrein seconded the motion, saying she agreed with Cr Cole’s statements about the town.
“It is a very, very resilient little town. It’s absolutely amazing,” she said.
“There’re not many towns that could go through three major flood episodes in all of 12 years and come out on the other side.
“They certainly do band together and I know there’s discussion around the town about the structure plan, which is basically setting up Skipton for the next 15 years.
“We’re directing new residential zones, commercial zones and industrial sector growth away from the flood area, which just obviously makes total sense.”
Cr Gstrein pointed to population data, with indicators predicting a population of between 800 – 1000 over the next decade.
She said this would equate to around 200 houses in Skipton.
“We also need diversity in our building stock, so we need unit development. We need townhouses,” Cr Gstrein said.
“We know that there are a lot of people who live in the area who are perhaps in one or two-person houses who’d like to downsize but there’s just not the opportunity.
“There certainly will be, in the future of developing, residentially zoned land or in fill development particularly.
“I would be quite surprised if the population figures that are indicated in the structure plan aren’t exceeded because it is a great little community.”
Cr Gstrein praised the Skipton community, saying people “work very well together” in times of need.
“They’ve got a sort of can-do attitude up in Skipton,” she said.
“I’d certainly like to see this town flourish in the future.”