Passive place reveals proposed timeline for stage one of housing at Stawell

PassivePlace has partnered with the Northern Grampians Shire Council to develop a first- a Net Zero community.

The housing project in Stawell is proposed to help housing and accommodation needs in the town and deliver the highest environmental living standards.

Executive director and founder Nick Lane said stage one of the project was unique.

"Council is keenly aware of a number of large employers such as the hospital, abattoirs, the gold mine and council itself that have approximately 50-60 staff members amongst them that need accommodation now," he said.

"The first stage is temporary accommodation that is allowed to be in place for five years. We'll be designing that accommodation and delivering that accommodation and we will be including culturally and socially sensitive design overlays to ensure that the grouping, arrangement and placement of that temporary accommodation on that part of the site is done well and done sympathetically and creates a good community itself.

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"That will be there for five years as we deliver the other stages of the site.

"We envision we'll be delivering that temporary stage by the end of the year.

"Every year we will be delivering another stage.

"That first stage, those temporary buildings, we are hoping we will be able to provide a community housing provider who can use those or they can go to seasonal workers in agricultural areas of the region."

Mr Lane said the company had hosted two community consultation sessions in Stawell which received positive results.

"We've engaged with the neighbours, engaged with the broader community, major employers in town and met with councillors twice," he said.

"We're now doing our second round of community consultation. The positivity and excitement and knowledge about the project just continue to increase.

"People are really excited about getting some houses on the ground. They've expressed their understanding of the acute housing shortage in the area and understanding the types of housing that aren't being provided by the market which is long-term rental which is the priority for the site to deliver - long-term sustainable accommodation for local key workers."

Mr Lane said the housing typologies will include retirement housing, two, three and four-bedroom homes, units, villas and potentially some apartments.

"We are only building the type of accommodation that the community needs," he said.

"If there isn't a need for apartments and not enough one-person or two-person households who want that type of accommodation then that won't be delivered.

"The council have allowed us to have a flexible approach to go out to the market, to go out the community and say what kind what kind of housing do you need and plan that housing around it."

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