Well designed roads and in particular, the CBD grid, have been an important feature of the City of Melbourne from the beginning. Today, the City of Melbourne has approximately 1500 roads and 900 laneways under its care and management.
Road naming and property numbering
Roads are named and premises are numbered under Council's Activities Local Law 1999.
Council decides on the naming of roads and numbering of properties in response to the needs to emergency services, and using an automated Property Base System. Properties are numbered in relation to their physical means of access.
New road names must relate to the historical and cultural connections of the area.
Alignments and abutting works
The adopted road alignments for the streets and lanes under Council's management will, in many cases, differ somewhat from the relevant title boundaries. This is due to the age of the municipality and the effects of many thousands of application surveys. However, generally there will be a close agreement between a road alignmnet and abutting title boundaries.
Developers and builders must ensure that new building works abutting Council's lanes do not overlap the physically paved road, which will generally approximate to the correct road alignment.
Laneways
The City of Melbourne has about 900 laneways, called "corporation lanes", under its care and management.
In most cases those laneways are considered to be public highways and the Council view is that abutting properties have access and servicing rights over those roads.
A property's access and servicing rights over abutting lands need to be justified before a planning permit can be issued for a development proposal that relies on the existence of such rights.
Discontinuance and sale of roads
Council approves the discontinuance and sale of roads according to the provisions of Clause 3 of Schedule 10 of the Local Government Act 1989.
Council has established policies and procedures that apply to road discontinuances.
A main Council principle is that the discontinuance and sale of a road should be considered only when there is a desirable approved development of abutting lands and the lane itself. The discontinuance and sale of a small portion of road in some circumstances outside of the CBD may however be excluded from that requirement.
All of Council's reasonable associated costs must be met and the land must be purchased from Council.
Contact us
All roads enquiries should be directed to the City of Melbourne on (03) 9658 9658.