Bass Coast Township Character Study

In 2013, Hansen was engaged by Bass Coast Shire Council to undertake a township character study across the municipality that would help Council prioritise towns for future strategic growth.

The study determined which townships (or parts of townships) had a clearly identifiable character and explored whether existing planning controls were adequate in dealing with current and predicted pressures for growth.

Our approach included the following activities and services:

• Detailed desktop review of demographic trends, aerial photography and the strengths and weaknesses of the existing policy framework.
• Creation of a ‘township character matrix’ – developed in conjunction with Council to address considerations such as the ‘sense of arrival’,  streetscape quality and significant natural features such as coastal views.
• Three days of field work assessing each town against the matrix.
• Cross referencing of the field work matrix observations with relative growth / development pressures of each town and the level of protection afforded under the existing policy framework.

Each town was assigned a priority rating for further investigation and preliminary recommendations were made regarding potential planning controls to strengthen the character of those areas. The findings of the study were presented as a consolidated report which included township data sheets for each of the towns investigated