More units planned near burb’s fight site

DEVELOPERS have unveiled plans to bulldoze a Highton home and replace it with eight double-storey units, not far from the site where residents successfully blocked a major townhouse project.

A planning application submitted to the City of Greater Geelong unveiled the planned development on a 1700sq m South Valley Rd property, where an existing house would be demolished to make way for the units.

The $1.14m development appears to have earmarked every tree – about 20 – on the site for removal.

The eight double-storey units comprise six with three bedrooms, and two with two bedrooms.

The planning application comes after the state’s planning umpire in November refused a Morven Court major development, about 600m from the South Valley Rd site, after public backlash.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) this month refused an Arc Townhomes application to subdivide and develop a 9400sq m site known as “frog hollow”.

The developer on that site had hoped to build 27 single and double-storey homes. The plans prompted 108 objections to be sent to the CoGG.

Neighbours had voiced “grave concerns” the development of the flood-prone land would worsen future flooding in the area.

A group of neighbours then crowd-funded more than $15,000 to hire a town planner to help oppose the development at VCAT, after the applicant appealed the CoGG’s failure to make a decision on the plans within the required time frame.

The neighbours described the VCAT decision as a “watershed moment for sustainable development in Geelong”, and warned residents concerned about sustainable development planned to monitor development applications more closely.