CBD planning comes up tops

Minister for Planning Rob Hulls has awarded Bendigo and town planners Planisphere the Planning Institute of Australia award for excellence in the urban planning achievement category.

Among the nine submissions, only the City of Greater Geelong, which received a commendation, was from outside the Melbourne area.

Director of City Strategy Marg Allan, who was also the project manager for the development of the plan, said the CBD plan showed Bendigo was capable of producing a plan as good, if not better, than anything coming out of Melbourne, where resources were often more plentiful.

"What this says is the quality of skills we have here and the methodology we have adopted for this plan is really exceptional," she said.

Ms Allan said that from a 1000 notices sent out for amendments to the planning scheme for the CBD project, the council received only three objections.

"It underscores the quality of the work and the extensive consultation we did for the project."

She said the vision for the CBD, adopted by the council last December, was based on four main guidelines - to generate private sector activity, to respect heritage, to make the Bendigo CBD an accessible city and to create a quality environment where present development became the heritage of the future.

Ms Allan said Bendigo had a "fantastic legacy" to work with in its compact and beautiful CBD.

"Part of the vision is to have the same civic pride and foresight as our forefathers."

She said the success of the plan had generated interest from the City of Perth Council and had been adopted as a guideline by the New Zealand city of Tauranga.