NEWS

26th September Newsflash!

The Planning Panel has produced its report on the C134 planning amendment, a rezoning proposal. The Panel has recommended the rezoning goes ahead and it increases the likelihood that local residents will bear a considerable burden for the costs of street surfacing. This is more probable for Sproat St residents, but Tower Rd residents on the 300 m unsealed strip may get a choice, pay for the street surfacing or eat the dust of an estimated 1,280 passing cars per day!

The C134 amendment will change the land immediately in front of the camera
to Residential 1 - essentially turning it into a 'suburban' area. This will result in the loss of the view over the land to Port Phillip Bay and the Mornington Peninsula.

The Panel was not at all impressed with the argument that this view was worth preserving

"The panel does not consider it is reasonable to maintain these views given the considerable distance from the view of those lots to the ocean and the fact that the view is only available because the subject land is currently vacant" (p. 21).

Apart from the fact the Panel seems somewhat disoriented ("the view to the ocean"... Really?) ...And when did a view from a distance over open land mean it was devalued? Tell that to a tourist operator marketing long sight lines and bay views, or a Swiss chalet operator, or real estate agent blabbing about views to the You Yangs (whilst adding $50,000 to the price of a house). Oh dear!
Eventually this vista will in all likelihood consist of large houses looming over the street. Watch this webpage and see it all happen!!

The Panel Report is online here. Type in C134
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/Shared/ats.nsf/b438c3c20553dc39ca256dee00143502?OpenForm&Seq=1

 

14th September 2007
Last week the City of Greater Geelong voted to rezone a large part of the Bellarine Peninsula as a "Rural Conservation Zone"  rather than a "Rural Farming Zone", with an emphasis on, amongst other things, strengthening protection for landscapes and ecologically sensitive areas such as wetlands, and support for agriculture principally small farms with a minimum lot size of 30 hectares. It will allow small scale tourism ventures to be developed in the Peninsula hinterland, with a limit of bed numbers on hotels (max. 30 beds) and other ventures (max 6 beds). Alas all too late for the vista/landscape which is the focus for this web site, the subject of a pending rezoning decision to "Residential 1" allowing 300 houses to be built across the land which is the foreground for the view you see on this web site each morning, inevitably obscuring a stunning vista and one of the best and most accessible views characteristic of the Bellarine Peninsula. To the left a selection of the views from Sproat St which will be obscured.

Values which are the basis for the Rural Conservation Zone

"The values that this zone seeks to conserve are:
The continuing use of the area for agriculture, in particular crop raising and extensive animal husbandry, as the main land use on the Bellarine Peninsula and as an integral part of the rural economy and character of the area and the region.
The farmed rural landscape of the Bellarine Peninsula which is characterised by the unique and integrated blend of agriculture, long sightline views to distant features, coastal and inland environmental features, wetlands, original remnant vegetation, limited large lot rural living and tourist facilities which are subservient and complimentary to their rural setting" (City of Greater Geelong September 2007).