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Page Last Updated:
Monday, 11 February 2013
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Home>Council Services>Planning & Building>Strategic Planning>Knox Central Urban Design Framework
| An Urban Design Framework was prepared for the Knox Central Precinct. The Precinct includes land along Burwood Highway from Stud Road to Scoresby Road, areas south of Blind Creek and also includes Lewis Park, the adjacent retarding basin and the Swinburne University of Technology. The key aim of the Framework is to outline the built form principles required to support a thriving, lively focal point and mixed-use activity centre for the outer eastern suburbs.
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| No where else in the Melbourne Metropolitan area is there such a unique and fantastic opportunity to develop a principal activity centre like Knox Central in such an integrated, holistic way and meet so many needs in the process.
Bigger than the Melbourne CBD and bordered by Stud Road, Burwood Highway and Lewis Road, Knox Central will be set amidst a bush boulevard. The Framework also provides for the rehabilitation of Blind Creek so it flows along its natural water course once again, wetlands that are accessible by boardwalks with cafes and shops along the route.
Apartment style living will be available for those who want to be near facilities and services, all with views to the Dandenongs.
A major public transport interchange will service improved public transport services and a cultural centre and a regional skateboard and BMX park are planned. The offices that are planned for Burwood Highway will encourage new jobs.
Knox City Council, the Department of Sustainability & Environment and AMP Capital Investments and various experts, other stakeholders and interested members of the community have worked out the Framework, which will drive the economic, social and environmental health of the Knox community over the next twenty years.
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| Where is Knox Central? | | The Initiative
Knox City Council has prepared this planning and design vision to help guide investment ideas for the city’s commercial, business and administrative hub.
The Framework outlines key 'built form' principles that are required to support a physically, economically, socially and culturally vibrant activity centre that is the preeminent focal point of both local and regional activity.
The Place
Knox Central is the name given to a core area of commercial and industrial land located along the Burwood Highway between Stud and Scoresby Road, Wantirna South/Knoxfield. The study area includes:
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 | Knox City/Knox Ozone Shopping Centre | | City of Knox Municipal Offices, Library and Operations Centre | | Lewis Park and the Blind Creek Reserve | | Institute of Horticultural Development, Knoxfield Campus | | Fairhills High School | | Rembrandts Entertainment Complex | | Swinburne University of Technology, Wantirna Campus | | Villa Maria Society & Wantirna Hospital | | Broad areas of commercial, industrial and other uses
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| The Reason
Knox Central is changing rapidly. It is currently recognised as a principal activity centre in the State Government's Melbourne Metropolitan Strategy and has experienced significant redevelopment pressure as a function of considerable private sector investment and the increasing demand to protect the amenity and quality of the precinct's residential surrounds. It is the place where significant change may be accommodated in Knox.
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| What is the Knox Central Urban Design Framework? | | The Vision
The Knox Central Urban Design Framework proposes a vision for Knox Central. It seeks to:
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| Establish Burwood Highway, Knox Central as the premier address and the most well known and popular activity centre destination in the middle/outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. | | Establish Knox Central as the employment, commercial, community, entertainment and leisure focal point and as the heart of the municipality. | | Use natural and environmental features to distinguish Knox Central from other suburban activity centres. | | Establish the area as the most accessible place in the municipality and in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne by public transport, by pedestrians, by cyclists, and also by cars. | | Achieve a high intensity of activity throughout the area that creates the critical mass needed to support the widest possible range of higher order commercial, community and other uses. | | Establish a beautiful and highly regarded urban environment in terms of both its landscape setting and its built form. | | 'Open up' road access to and throughout the precinct making it easier to move through, to understand and more accessible. | | Pursue all realistic opportunities to incorporate principles of environmental sustainability in all development that occurs throughout the study area.
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| How Will Knox Central Grow? | | Precinct Plans
The Knox Central Urban Design Framework proposes clear design goals and objectives to help guide investment and development discussions for the area.
These include:
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| Knox City |
| To encourage additional retail, commercial and mixed uses in a consolidated activity centre form | | To promote a new sense of built form frontage and address to the Burwood Highway | | To highlight the desire for a relationship between Lewis Park, the centre and the north of the site | | To encourage greater access and community spirit for amongst others, the elderly, young couples and 'downsizers' through increased consolidation in selected frontage locations | | To encourage mixed use/residential integration with retail form where possible
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| Civic Precinct |
| To promote a physical heart to the Knox Central activity centre servicing all of the municipality | | To encourage a suite of proud built forms arranged around a generous parkland setting | | To integrate civic facilities with related entertainment, leisure, recreation and commercial services | | To physically and visually connect the civic role with adjoining retail, parkland and employment networks
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| Lewis Parklands |
| Establish Lewis Park as the primary regional open space within Knox Central servicing a broad community | | Improve the environmental condition of the parkland through natural revegetation and wetland formation | | Increase the retarding basin capacity of the parkland to accommodate for peripheral site consolidation | | Establish new active uses to front and overlook the park to increase natural surveillance | | Create new access roads and visual linkages from the site edges to the Lewis Park | | Form new and improved consolidated recreational facilities within particular parts of the park | | Blind Creek | | Restore the environmental quality of Blind Creek through the creation of a naturally occurring waterway form | | Encourage revegetation of the creek corridor to form a sound natural planted ribbon through the site | | Reveal the Blind Creek corridor as a key linear attraction for flora, fauna and environmental education | | Form harmonious new development adjoining the corridor that 'fits' within the natural bush setting
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| Lewis Road Industrial Areas |
| Maintain light industry and service related uses with incremental improvement of the urban image | | Encourage gradual transition from industrial uses to mixed new economy' employment areas | | Extend new road link where possible to create a more permeable and accessible business setting | | Form attractive streetscapes that will be recognised as the address for business activity | | Create strong physical and visual linkages to the campus, civic and retail uses to the east and west.
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| IHD Corner |
| To better utilise activity centre land for the purposes of mixed residential and institutional development | | To establish a strong built form presence to the Burwood Highway and Scoresby Road corner | | To improve linkages to the important Blind Creek corridor and the amenity of associated open spaces | | To sensitively manage interfaces with adjoining school and/or residential uses on Scoresby Road
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| Rembrandts Triangle |
| To establish a recognisable built form presence to the corner of Burwood Highway and High Street Road | | To form a consolidated mixed use form that complements the civic, retail and residential surrounds | | To reinforce the traditional bush boulevard form to each side of the Burwood Highway | | To establish suitable interfaces to adjoining established residential villages to the west and east of the site | | To achieve safe and legible access to and through the site to facilitate site redevelopment | | Consider the option for restricted retail use, but only if such a use cannot be integrated into the Knox City site in an appropriate manner and subject to meeting stringent urban design requirements in relation to the site landmark quality, highway abuttal and relationship to the civic precinct on the opposite side of Burwood Highway.
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| Burwood Highway/Stud Road South |
| To create a new sense of built form frontage and address to the Burwood Highway and Stud Road corner | | To establish a regional activity centre presence along each side of the Burwood Highway | | To generate opportunities for mixed use activity as a 'skin' in front of established residential neighborhoods | | To generate improved linkages between the campus uses and open spaces with the core Knox Central area | | To achieve integrated medium density housing consolidation behind the Burwood Highway frontage as a transition to surrounding standard suburban housing stock.
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| For more information | | Knox City Council
City Development – Strategic & Economic Development
511 Burwood Highway
Wantirna South Vic 3152
Telephone: 03 9298 8125
Facsimile: 03 9801 0389
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