Barwon Heads Farm plans scaled back

THE proponents of a children’s farm, restaurant and function centre in Connewarre have changed their plans for the site in response to community objections.
The planning permit application for what is known as Barwon Heads Farm are now on public exhibition through the City of Greater Geelong council.
To be built at 65-101 Lings Road, the “integrated, low-scale tourism offering” will retrofit and repurpose existing buildings on the site, including a shearing shed and a machinery shed.
According to the planning documents, Barwon Heads Farm has been altered somewhat since it was originally presented to the council, including:

• The removal of a “replacement dwelling”, as a separate planning permit has been obtained for the new dwelling and conversion of the existing dwelling to a bed and breakfast
• The deletion of a major new building in the centre of the site
• Reducing the number of patrons in the restaurant (which would be used seven days a week) from 180 to 80 and operating hours from 7am-10pm to 7am-4pm
• Reducing the operating hours of the restaurant (which would be used from Thursday to Sunday) from 11am-midnight to 6pm-midnight but increasing the number of patrons from 110 to 200
• Removing the northern car park, and
• Removing the wider drainage swale and drainage basin.

The children’s farm is to be retained and is unchanged, with a maximum of 40 patrons and operating hours of 9am-4pm, seven days a week.
According to the cover letter on the application prepared by planning and design firm Tract, the existing formation of the unsealed Lings Road can be maintained, “provided regular grading of the road is undertaken to ensure the condition is maintained to avoid nuisance dust to nearby properties”, as sealing the road “is an excessively onerous requirement to be placed on a single landowner”.
The scaled-down proposal is expected to reduce vehicle movements per day from 300 to 200.
The application also acknowledges the importance of capturing, treating and discharging stormwater appropriately given the site’s proximity to the Ramsar Wetland-classifed Murtnaghurt Lagoon.
The public notification period for the application closes on Monday, August 31.
To read all the documents, head to geelongaustralia.com.au/advertisedplanning