Dan vow on coast towns
COMMUNITIES on the Surf Coast and the Bellarine will enjoy the permanent protections they need to stop overdevelopment under moves announced by Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday.
Mr Andrews said his government believed the sprawl and overdevelopment across the region had gone too far, risking the lifestyle locals loved and enjoyed.
The Government announced community engagement was under way ahead of the declaration of Torquay, Jan Juc and surrounds, and the Bellarine communities as distinctive areas and landscapes under the Planning and Environment Act.
“I want to be very clear that it’s our position that the town boundary (for Torquay) is Duffields Rd and not an inch further,” Mr Andrews said.
“And I think that will be very strongly supported through the consultative process that we need to go through. We want to make sure that we put this beyond doubt.
“The unique character of this beautiful coastal community needs to be preserved and enhanced and overdevelopment was rejected in November last year.”
Mr Andrews said consultation would enable the community to have input into the declaration statement that will underpin the detailed work that will go into drawing up the statement of planning policy.
But developers who had bought land for the proposed Spring Creek development would not be compensated.
“We’re not in the business of compensating people for the fact that they couldn’t make a huge windfall profit and fundamentally undermine the character of this area,” he said. “We’ve put residents first.” While Duffields Rd remained its preferred town boundary, the Government said the ultimate decision on town boundaries would be finalised after community consultation.
Bellarine MP Lisa Neville said the declaration statement would give the community a say over height controls and town boundaries.
“This was perhaps one of the most important issues in the last election and this process is about town boundaries but it’s also about character and height issues as well and long-term protection,” she said.
“We’ve had planning schemes that provided some protection but then you get councils and others trying to push the barrow.
“This is about making sure they can’t do that by protecting the great landscapes and assets that are there.”
Community engagement will start next month and the declaration will take place in July.
The draft statement of planning policy is to be completed by the end of 2019 and the process finalised by mid-2020.