An independent Planning Panel is preparing recommendations about the City of Greater Geelong's detailed proposals for Stage 1 of Drysdale’s Jetty Road residential development.
The proposals are in Amendment 152 to the Greater Geelong Planning Scheme and they have aroused many objections, mostly from owners of the land in Stage 1. The Council has been unable to resolve these objections, so it referred its proposals to a state government-appointed independent Planning Panel. The Panel met in Melbourne between 1 and 3 July to hear objectors and is expected to make its recommendations to the Council in August.
The Panel heard that the current owners of the land in Stage 1 wish to build a major housing development, but they are concerned about how much of their land will be defined as public open space and how much as encumbered (unfit for building). Public open space is land that could be built on but won't be, so its owner's contribution to the costs of major infrastructure (roads, sewers, etc.) in Stage 1 is reduced. Encumbered land is unfit for building on because, for example, it is unstable, so its owner's contribution to those infrastructure costs stays the same. Several hundred thousand dollars are at stake in these definitions.
In the Council's current plan, much of the public open space and encumbered land is adjacent to Griggs Creek and to the foreshore. The remainder of the public open space will be a small park next to the shopping plaza at the centre of Stage 1. There was considerable debate about how much land in each location will be defined as either public open space or encumbered.
The Panel also heard that the City of Greater Geelong wants a single development plan for Stage 1, to ensure that the costs of major infrastructure can be calculated in advance and spread equitably across the whole development. Each of the landowners wants their land to have a separate development plan, with its own infrastructure costs. This, they say, will enable them to start developing their land much sooner than creating a single development plan.
The Jetty Road development site - on the Geelong side of Drysdale - was earmarked for residential development in 1992 and in October 2007, several developers submitted a formal application to rezone Stage 1 of the development. The Council should publish the Planning Panel's report within 28 days of receiving it.
(An amended version was published as 'Jetty Road plan waits for panel findings' in the Bellarine Times 17 July 2009.)
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