Swan Hill Rural City Council engaged Habitat to prepare a Highway Business Strategy to investigate the potential for the northern and southern entrances to Swan Hill on Murray Valley Highway.

The existing zoning of the southern and northern entrance to Swan Hill had remained in place for a number of years and was no longer responsive to the current landowners or generating any new development options. The northern and southern entries also present major transitions into the regional centre of Swan Hill and needed to project an image of a thriving regional centre.

The final report recommended the rezoning of the southern and northern entries for business zoning, with an emphasis of revitalising the entries with new uses and associated public domain works to benefit the town. The recommendations required consideration of a range of stakeholder and agency views, demands for new and established uses as well as infrastructure and physical constraints.

Recommendations from the report were used as the basis for subsequent changes to the Swan Hill planning scheme.