She said council staff's first step was to create a plan of how it would conduct further community consultation.
Cr Abdullah said consultation would not be limited to a particular group of people, but opened to the "entire" community.
“Through Tuesday's motion that was adopted, the CEO (Peter Harriott) is now going to get the consultation process started,” she said.
“How and the timelines have not been decided yet, but that's something the CEO and his staff are going to look into.
“The consultation process always involves the whole community; however, councillors had concerns that process was not adequate and that was why council put that motion forward to defer the adoption of this plan so it allows time for extensive consultation.”
Cr Abdullah said going back for more consultation would come at a cost to ratepayers.
“Every job comes with a cost and this is an additional piece of work, so it would incur a cost,” she said.
“The motion has said six months, so the cost has to be absorbed in the current budget.”
Cr Abdullah said deferring could give rise to numerous potential scenarios, including council having the plan taken away by the Victorian Planning Authority — an issue raised by Cr Chris Hazelman during the ordinary meeting.
“At the end of the day, land rezoning is a decision that rests with the Minister for Planning,” Cr Abdullah said.
“The Minister for Planning may make any calls later in the process ... on how and what way we go ahead. The minister will be informed of [Tuesday's] decision.
“There could be several scenarios ... Cr Hazelman was indicating some of them, but really at this stage there are uncertainties around what's going to happen.
“There are a lot of unknowns at this stage, but the CEO and council staff would work through those and keep council engaged.”
The Victorian Government announced on Wednesday the October elections would "go ahead", which means a new council will vote on the plan, given Cr Bruce Giovanetti has declared he will not stand for re-election.
“It would be a decision for a new council to make, [making] best use of the information available and the knowledge and expertise they would bring,” Cr Abdullah said.
“So definitely it's going to be a question and matter for consideration for the new council.”
