During consultation on the Boroondara Community Plan 2021-31, our community told us that parks and green spaces, the environment, neighbourhood character and heritage are important to them. Trees and urban greening play an important role in these areas our community want us to focus on.
About 5,000 people participated in this consultation in 2020-21.

Developing this strategy was also an action in our Climate Action Plan, which outlines how we will respond to the real and increasing threat of climate change to our environment, health and wellbeing. Around 2,000 community members provided feedback through consultation in 2020-21.

In May and June 2024, we invited our community to provide feedback on the draft strategy.

Who we heard from

We received feedback in these ways:

• 674 people shared feedback through our survey
• 9 written submissions were received
• over 100 community members attended drop-in sessions.

Of those who participated:

• 58% were female
• just over half were aged 60 years or over
• there was good representation from community members living in all Boroondara suburbs.

What we heard

Overall, there was a strong level of support for the strategy and the measures it proposes to increase canopy cover.

• 90% of respondents supported increasing tree canopy cover
• 96% of respondents supported planting more trees in parks, streets and shopping strips
• 80% of respondents supported finding new ways to minimise pruning of street trees
• 66% of respondents supported minimising pruning around power lines.

Of those who weren’t supportive of the proposed pruning approaches, their main concerns were:

• leaf litter
• potential for damage to infrastructure
• perceived safety issues for falling branches.

“Council could provide to land holders lists of appropriate tree selections for different locations & spaces.”

“I love the autumn foliage and the beautiful parks and gardens that we have in Canterbury."

“Homeowners need personalised advice and encouragement on appropriate trees for their property.”

“Trees are very important to the amenity of our area. We're concerned about the lack of control over new dwellings being erected so close to the boundary fence, leaving insufficient space for tree planting.”

“Increase trees and plantings to street corridors to minimised heat island effects.”

“I think trees are a key part of Boroondara and what makes this area a lovely place to live. Please keep planting more trees! And please encourage and/or legislate more tree planting on private property.”

You can download a copy of the full community engagement report from the document library on this page.