No rezoning
T^his letter has been republished from last week as it contained incorrect dates.
The rezoning of the former Yarragon school site by the Department of Environment Land, Water and Planning for the purpose of a sale by the department of treasury and finance cannot possibly happen.
I know this because in a meeting on February 17 between myself, my partner and three Baw Baw Shire town planners (one being planner of the year) it was adamantly stated by the planners that there was not going to be any further rezoning of land to residential in Yarragon until 2026. They gave three reasons for this. 1. Yarragon, apparently, has a serious flooding and drainage problem that has to be rectified before any more rezoning to residential can occur. Yes it does take that long to clean drains and upsize some culverts.
2. There is already enough undeveloped residential zoned land in Yarragon that will be sufficient post 2026 but cannot be developed anyway because of the flood and drainage problem.
3. The planners don’t have time to deal with Yarragon as they are so busy rezoning and developing Warragul and Drouin. Obviously they are the only two towns that deserve to grow and prosper within the shire. Therefore, Baw Baw Shire Council and its planners can exercise their own logic to persuade DELWP to rezone the school site to any zone other than residential, or retain the land for community use and lease/rent it to a user.
To rezone the land to residential will not realise any money for the Department of Treasury and Finance in the near future because no one would want to buy it because it seems it can’t be developed for 10 years.
The land would potentially sit there, vacant for 10 years at the DELWP expense. However the shire council may change its mind and rezone the land residential making it very desirable land in a very desirable town and all of the above goes out the window.
If this is the case then the concerned residents of Yarragon will have Buckleys chance of stopping this rezoning process and imminent sale
Janice Fisher, Yarragon