SQUATTERS PARADISE
Call for council to step in as vandals destroy retirement village in sought-after beachside location
A DERELICT retirement village on prime real estate in Ocean Grove just metres from the sea is now home to graffiti artists, arsonists and drug addicts, locals say.
The village’s neighbours have called on City Hall to have the buildings demolished.
Ocean Grove resident Steven Schroeter said he had called police on a number of occasions over vandalism and several incidents where buildings were set alight. But nothing has been done. “People are going in there and damaging them. I’ve been living here since December 2015 ... it’s just getting worse,” he said. “They just come in and wreck the place.”
Mr Schroeter said someone could also get injured jumping the fences that surround the property.
“They’ve tried to set it on fire three times,” he said.
A DERELICT retirement village on prime real estate in Ocean Grove just metres away from the sea is now home to graffiti artists, arsonists and drugs, according to local residents.
The village’s neighbours are still calling on City Hall to have the buildings demolished after they continue to be destroyed by vandals and even set on fire.
Local resident Steven Schroeter said he’d had to call police on numerous occasions after vandals accessed the property and tried to set one of the homes alight — yet still nothing has been done about the vacant homes.
“People are going in there and damaging them. I’ve been living here since December 2015 and it was like that then, but it’s just getting worse,” he said.
“They just come in and wreck the place. They tag it, smash the windows, pull down the walls. I’ve even had tourists go in there and take photos of the damage because they’ve heard about it.”
Mr Schroeter said someone could also get injured jumping the fences that surround the property and he regularly walks through at night to check no one is squatting.
“They’ve tried to set it on fire three times,” he said.
“I’ve had to call the police on them. It’s so damaged you can’t even tell what the new damage is anymore. They should be demolished.”
“All the residents think it should be demolished. It’s a fire hazard and it’s going to cause trouble,” he said.
Another resident, John Ferguson, told the Geelong Advertiser late last year that he believed the buildings were devaluing his property.
“It is just an inconvenience when you can see that there is nothing happening and there has been nothing happen in perhaps five years,” he said.
The derelict buildings are on prime real estate, only a few metres from the ocean, and are in an area where the average house sells for $575,000.
A planning permit was issued for the village in 2002 but, according to the council, that ceased in 2008.
CoGG’s Neighbourhood Amenity Local Law allows for $2000-a-month penalties for property owners who fail to fix or sell dilapidated buildings and they assess “dilapidation” in terms of structural integrity, safety, amenity and whether the building is subject to anti-social behaviours, illegal occupation or graffiti.
The City’s acting director planning and development, Geoff Lawler, said the inactivity on the land had caused the planning permit to expire but there was nothing they could do yet.
“There is no mechanism within the Planning and Environment Act that might compel the development to be completed, the buildings removed or the site cleaned up in these circumstances,” he said.
An inspection was made in 2016 and the owner subsequently arranged for some of the window panes and graffiti to be removed, he said.