House refused on mayor’s vote

A planning application seeking to build a house on a small rural lot in Yarragon was refused by Baw Baw Shire on the casting vote of the mayor.

Despite a move by Crs Darren Wallace and Danny Goss to approve the application, their motion was defeated on the casting vote of mayor Mikaeala Power.

A subsequent motion to refuse the application was then carried on the casting vote of Cr Power.

The applicants sought to build a house on a four hectare property in Trickeys Rd, Yarragon.

Officers recommended the application be refused, stating it was inconsistent with provisions of the rural zones policy and was not supported by a farm management plan.

A report to council said the proposal failed to “justify that a house was an integral and ancillary part of the use of the land for a commercial farming purpose.”

“The proposal results in a proliferation of dwellings as there are existing dwellings on adjacent land within close proximity to the subject site,” officers said.

On behalf of the applicants, planning consultant Sonya Boloski said the 13 properties in or around Trickeys Rd were all under eight hectares in size.

“There is no way this could be classed as sustainable farmland.

“If you refuse this, what’s going to happen to these lots…they will just walk off the land and let it go to waste.

“We need to allow development of these small acreages in the shire to encourage rural living,” she said.

Cr Wallace said the application should be approved “purely on common sense grounds.”

He said the small acreage would be more productive with a house on it because the owners will be living on site and maximising its capacity. He said there was a significant open drain running through the property and there was no option for it to be consolidated into larger land holdings.

“The largest adjoining property is the same size,” he said.

“The previous owner walked away. Let the property be developed as a hobby farm because there are no other options for this site,” he said.

Cr Danny Goss said the land was subdivided in 1990 which was when the land was lost from agriculture.

He said the land couldn’t be lost from agriculture because it wasn’t being used for agriculture now and won’t be in the future.

“I believe the owners will make good use of this land,” he said.

Cr Peter Kostos said it was an example of “sins of the past.”

He said council had to consider the position of the land and the lots around it.

“It’s never going to be a viable farming enterprise. If it was going to be viable then it would have to be intensively farmed and then there could be objections from people living in that area,” he said.

But a number of councillors spoke against the application.

Cr Keith Cook said council had to look at the bigger picture and past rural land reviews had identified this as highly useable farmland.

He said a lot could be still done on properties of such size.

Cr Joe Gauci said he was concerned about the precedent set if council approved the application.

He said it would contribute to further fracturing of land.

He said the officer’s recommendation was based on state policy.