Petition calls for botanical garden
Almost 400 people have petitioned Baw Baw Shire Council to retain the Coromandel Arboretum in Warragul as a public park.
The petition, tabled at council last week, urges council to accept a unique garden as public open space in a proposed residential subdivision.
Developers of a 251-lot residential subdivision in Warragul proposed to incorporate the existing Coromandel Arboretum in East West Rd as a botanical garden feature of their estate.
However, planners say the proposal fails to meet public open space guidelines.
Petitioners hope to convince council otherwise.
The petition called on council to allow the arboretum to be incorporated as the public open space allocation within the new estate.
"There is an opportunity for this incredible asset to be retained for the public and given to the community. Currently the Baw Baw Shire Council do not want this asset, and we need to let them know we want the Coromandel trees saved for the community," the petition states.
The proposed subdivision, refused by council, is now in the hands of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Petitioners are calling on council to work with the developer to enable the botanic style garden to be retained as a community asset.
"The developer has indicated that it will negotiate with council to have this asset go to the community," the petitioners said.
The petition requests council to instruct council officers to inform VCAT that council will "accept the Coromandel Arboretum as a public park in the Warragul PSP."
Addressing council last week, Kerry Elliott urged councillors to consider the petition and the community's request.
Ms Elliott said council's vision and draft environmental sustainability strategy spoke about the need to "protect the natural environment."
She said the arboretum included a number of important and significant plantings.
"This must be protected to ensure those plantings of rare trees and significant vegetation is retained for future generations," she said.
Ms Elliott said council had already recognised the importance of retaining the natural environment with the purchase of a bush reserve in Drouin.
Cr Darren Wallace said the arboretum was currently privately owned and asked Ms Elliott if she had approached the owner to "gift" the parcel of land to council.
Ms Elliott said she was not in the position to negotiate with the owner but there were ways "this could be arranged" and she urged council to open the discussion.
Planners refused the subdivision on a number of grounds relating to links to existing roads, development that responds to the site topography, size of the village convenience store and a lack of information relating to a number of planning issues.
But the grounds for refusal relating to public open space stated the application did not deliver open space as required by the warragul Precinct Structure Plan.
The PSP requires a neighbourhood park to be 1.2 hectares in size and within 400 metres of 95 per cent of the houses. The arboretum is within only 65 per cent of the proposed houses.
"It would not contain any open play spaces for ball games and the like due to the vegetation, water bodies and slope of the land...the site is not suitable for kicking a football or wheeling a pram," planners said.
Coromandel Arboretum owner Jan Miller sold her 1.2 hectare property to developers Bernly Properties Pty Ltd hoped the garden, featuring 400 trees, would be a long appreciated community asset and public park.
The petition was tabled and officers will report back to council next month.
Speaking after the meeting, Mrs Elliott said the issue would be discussed at the new meeting of the Baw Baw Ratepayers Association on August 9 at the Warragul RSL Hall at 7.30pm.