Summary

  • Whittlesea’s council voted on 20 October to call for a pause on data-centre approvals until Victoria finishes and implements planning reforms. The call reaches a pending South Morang application; the permit decision belongs to the state.
  • The application for 165 Williamsons Road was lodged on 13 August. Victoria’s new data-centre expectations statement expressly excludes applications lodged before 23 September. The date on the file now matters as much as the policy on the podium.

The stop sign is at town hall; the stamp is at the state office. On 23 October, the City of Whittlesea announced that its councillors had called for a moratorium on data-centre approvals. They want Victoria’s planning reforms finished and put into planning schemes before more permits are decided in the municipality. The council specifically asked for an immediate hold on the proposed data centre at 165 Williamsons Road in South Morang.

That vote is a demand to the decision-maker. Whittlesea says the state’s Development Facilitation Program handles the relevant applications and that council itself does not decide them. The distinction has already played out on the next block of the story: the state’s permit register records a permit issued on 12 September 2024 for the data-centre site at 525 and 535 McDonalds Road and 765 Plenty Road, despite the council’s objection. Whittlesea now opposes the use of that state pathway and wants more room for local scrutiny.

The current file has a calendar problem. The state register for 165 Williamsons Road lists application PA2604586 as received on 13 August 2026, with public notice on 9 October. No responsible-authority decision is recorded there. Victoria’s Minister for Planning’s Statement of Expectation, dated 5 October, applies to applications lodged from 23 September. It explicitly excludes those lodged by 22 September, including later amendments within its stated boundary. The South Morang proposal is on the earlier side of that line.

The new statement asks future applicants to address siting near homes and other sensitive uses, agency referrals, resources, public notice and a measurable local investment guarantee. The state’s action-plan page says those expectations will inform later changes to the planning provisions. For this live application, the question is more immediate: what weight will the state give council and resident submissions under the process governing an August filing? Whittlesea is collecting local views and says it will send written correspondence to the minister. People can speak on this file. The person with the stamp remains in Melbourne.

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