Council rejects rezone push

Coastal boundary to stay

A $110 MILLION aged care facility has been proposed for Barwon Heads as part of a developer’s push to expand the coastal town’s urban boundaries.

Several developers with substantial holdings are lobbying the City of Greater Geelong to allow further housing to be built on the western fringe of the town.

But the council has rejected the push and has committed to retaining Barwon Heads’ existing settlement boundaries. It has instead chosen to promote higher-density living closer to the town centre, which some residents believe threatens the character of the coastal village.

After a long consultation process, the updated Barwon Heads Structure Plan will be discussed at a council meeting tomorrow night.

The council is expected to recommend that Planning Minister Richard Wynne appoint an independent panel to finalise the plan.

The blueprint received 940 submissions, with all but 12 supporting the proposed retention of the urban town boundary

Among the objectors were landowners keen to see development expand to the west of the town.

Barwon Heads Lifestyle, which owns 49.6 hectares of farmland on the south side of Barwon Heads Rd, argued the residential expansion would help ease price rises in the area.

They committed to creating an aged care complex as part of the development, which was pitched as being worth $110 million and creating about 140 jobs.

The council rejected the proposal, stating that substantial land was available in nearby Ocean Grove and Armstrong Creek for retirement facilities.

A consortium of landowners between Barwon Heads Rd and Taits Rd in the north also pushed to rezone a 39ha block.

Both proponents said they would be able to host part of the planned Round the Heads trail.

While acknowledging private land could avoid the need to build the trail through the Murtnaghurt Lagoon wetland, the council said that it alone was not reason enough to overturn the ban.

“This alone is not a sufficient reason to support the rezoning of over 88ha of sensitive coastal land,” planning and development director Joanne Van Slageren said.

The most criticism came for the increased density policy, with dozens of residents believing it was out of scale and counter-productive to the area’s small village feel.

The policy, which would allow building heights to be lifted to 11m and three storeys, aims to increase housing diver- sity close to the town centre.

Among the 78 objectors was the Barwon Heads Association.

It called for the higher-density area to be reduced to 100m from the current commercial zone and limited to Ozone Rd.

The council has stuck with the policy but has removed land west of Golf Links Rd from the zone to lessen the impacts of stormwater flooding.

The town’s traffic and parking woes, which are said to be extending outside of peak holiday periods, were the subject of 51 submissions.

The council has ruled out speed limit reductions, but is considering the merits of a special rates and charges scheme being used to fund more car parking or footpaths.

“Community consultation would be required due to the financial implications this would have on affected ratepayers.”