Victoria Street Revitalisation Plan

On 8 April 2025 Council endorsed the development of the Victoria Street Revitalisation Plan, aimed at delivering short, medium and long-term interventions.

Excerpt of minutes from 8 April 2025. Image credit: City of Yarra.

On Victoria Street, businesses report that they are struggling, despite the fact that Victoria Street is only 2 to 3 km from the central business district and is served by a tram line. At that proximity, the shopping street should be a premium area, bustling with customers. One issue raised by traders is the location of the Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR), which opened in 2018 (this article offers a detailed discussion) however it’s not the only relevant issue.

Entrance to Victoria Street. Image credit: Victoria Street page on Facebook.

In 2010, Council adopted the Victoria Street Structure Plan, with recommendations including:

  • revise the Yarra Planning Scheme to ‘facilitate more intensive housing development’ and ‘encourage office development and a mix of complementary activities’
  • deliver ‘access and safety for cyclists’, with ‘an improved network of cycle routes and facilities’
  • footpath upgrades, side street crossings, street furniture, landscaping
  • design streets to increase activity, surveillance and a sense of safety
Victoria Street Structure Plan. Image credit: City of Yarra.

In 2017, Council considered the Reimagining Victoria Street report, resolving to note the community desire for urgent action on the public health, safety and amenity issues in the Victoria Street precinct, and to develop an action plan.

Reimagining Victoria Street. Image credit: City of Yarra.

In 2021, Council reviewed the built form along Victoria Street, resolving to proceed with the proposed C291 amendment to the planning scheme, clarifying preferred height limits and zonal interfaces for properties along (or very close to) Victoria Street. This amendment is waiting for Ministerial approval.

Victoria Street built form review. Image credit: City of Yarra, GJM.

Looking back on Council’s past work, we suggest that the long-term urban renewal strategy most likely to succeed, i.e. to improve public health, safety and amenity in the precinct, is to significantly increase the population that lives within a short walk of Victoria Street, via upzoning.

We suggest upzoning this area. Image credit: Apple Maps, Streets Alive Yarra.

Specifically, and compared with previous proposals, instead of focusing only on Victoria Street, or defining most of the nearby area as ‘minimal change’, it would instead mostly be ‘substantial change’, capable of supporting 6-storey mixed-use, like Paris.

The 2010 proposal was mostly ‘minimal change’. Image credit: City of Yarra.
The 2021 proposal didn’t address the walkable catchment area to either side of Victoria Street. Image credit: City of Yarra.

We note that the state government is proposing to deliver some form of upzoning across the whole of Yarra via their Activity Centre Program. Upzoning around Victoria Street could be enacted as a first step, prior to a future municipal-wide reform of Yarra’s planning scheme.

The state government has hinted that the whole of Yarra may be upzoned. Image credit: State Government of Victoria.

The upzoned land would have a larger area than the Hoddle Grid, which has over 54,000 residents, and Victoria Street could be just as vibrant, even if limited to 6 stories.

The Victoria Street precinct has a larger area than the Hoddle Grid. Image credit: Nearmap, Streets Alive Yarra.

This action would be complemented by a multi-disciplinary approach that includes offering vacant properties to artists or creatives at low cost or rent free, and precinct activation from Victoria Street Alive!. In combination, and over time, this would deliver a huge boost to local traders, improve public safety and amenity via ‘eyes on the street‘, and attract patrons from further afield who arrive by tram or train.

If the Victoria Street was upzoned, it could evolve into a thriving precinct. Image credit: Social Life Project.


In conclusion, Streets Alive Yarra encourages Council to discuss this suggestion with local land owners, local residents, and with the state government, as one part of a multi-disciplinary urban renewal strategy.

Published 6 June 2025