Bellarine Times
Tuesday 27 April 2010
VOL 3. No 17
www.bellarinetimes.com.au
FREE WEEKLY
Drysdale Scouts, Wade McDonald and Jay Taberner, joined local veterans and other community members at the Drysdale ANZAC service on Sunday. INSET: Portarlington veterans, community members and visitors gathered for a dawn service, traditional ANZAC ceremony and march from Parks Hall to the RSL on Sunday. Photos: ALISON MARTIN
SET TO GO Point Lonsdale housing development to go ahead following ministerial approval
BY ALISON MARTIN
POINT Lonsdale’s controversial Stockland housing development will go ahead after years of planning processes and community opposition. Local, state and federal governments have all agreed a 600-home development, with significant community facilities located between Swan Bay and internationally-significant wetlands is environmentally sound and meets planning requirements. However, Point Lonsdale Civic Association secretary, David Shaw, described the decision as “disappointing and surprising, given the high level of community objections against the proposal and the number of recent reports which did not support the Stockland proposal”.
Minister for Planning, Justin Madden, said the combined amendment and planning permit set additional planning controls, including an environmental bond to ensure all stages of the subdivision complied with the landscape plan. A bond will be levied at the rate of 120 per cent of the final landscaping costs. Madden said the development would include a 600-lot residential sub-division with integrated waterways, a retirement village, an aged care facility, a multi-purpose community centre, convenience shop, public open space, conservation land, walking paths, bicycle trails and a road network. “The robust planning controls I have introduced will ensure the Stockland development respects the site’s proximity to the nearby environmentally significant Swan Bay and Port Phillip Heads Marine
National Park,” he said. Madden said native vegetation protection, stormwater management, flood protection, urban design, landscaping, traffic management and pedestrian linkages had all been addressed. But despite the backing of three tiers of government, community concerns remain. PLCA chair, Barney Orchard said it was a decision that could “ultimately harm 600 families from rising water” long after the developer had gone. He was also disillusioned that local and state governments could approve a residential development on the Point Lonsdale land when numerous of their own reports by experts warned against development on low-lying land. “The community trusted the reports would have stopped this but now there are policies broken,
reports have been ignored, and the responsible planning authority has turned around and said it will be the problem of the people who buy there if it floods,” Orchard said. Member for Bellarine, Lisa Neville, has assured residents that a “rigorous environmental assessment process” had been undertaken and the development complied with the Point Lonsdale structure plan and City of Greater Geelong zoning. She said the proposal had been supported by the City of Greater Geelong and the independent panel. “I am very aware that there are strong community views and many community members will be opposed to this development,” she said. “That is why I have met with community groups and residents and have communicated these views to the Minister for Planning.”
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