Bellarine groups defend town character

BELLARINE community groups have made their final pleas to halt expansion boundaries and preserve green space at their towns.

The Combined Bellarine Community Association (CBCA) and Ocean Grove Community Association (OGCA) last week presented their cases to a state planning panel that is considering submissions to the Bellarine Distinctive Area Landscape (DAL).

OGCA has been at the forefront of a campaign to lock in urban settlement boundaries, with a petition racking up 8465 signatures as of early this week.

During its submission OGCA chair Phil Edwards described ongoing development amounted to “death of significant landscapes by 1000 cuts” and said there was “clear and wide” community desire to fix the town border.

“We all know from hard-learned experience that once (environment is) lost, there’s no coming back,” Mr Edwards said.

“The community wants the settlement boundary finished, and they want it finished now through this process.”

CBCA chair Lawrence St Leger also advocated for the importance of environment to the region in his presentation.

Dr St Leger, whose professional experience includes decades of research and advice for health promotion, argued that damaging the natural environment would reduce the Bellarine’s attraction as a tourism and residential growth zone.

“Nature is the most important resource we’ve got four building and sustaining health and well-being in the Bellarine,” he said.

Dr St Leger also called for greater First Nations input into the planning decision, and pointed out most Bellarine communities had enough developable land within existing boundaries to cater for 10 to 20 years of further growth.

Meanwhile, developers presenting this week raised ideas for “landscape responsive design” that could have guidance from a framework enabling green space and non-intrusive built form to minimise impacts.

Planners also pointed to the need for further accommodation opportunities to meet projected demand from tourism leaders of hundreds of thousands more visits to the region in coming decades.

The City of Greater Geelong (COGG) has indicated its preference to hit the brakes on Bellarine development, instead concentrating growth to the city’s north and west.

Premier Daniel Andrews and Bellarine MP Lisa Neville have also both backed limited ongoing growth.

A Statement of Planning Policy for the DAL will outline a 50-year framework for Bellarine towns, which guides where and how developers can build to meet ongoing residential and business demand while preserving neighbourhood character.

Barwon Heads and Drysdale-Clifton Springs-Curlewis associations will argue their case early this week while Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale groups, and local environmentalists are among the final submissions.

Hearings finish on June 8, from which the committee will have 40 business days (until August 3) to submit its report and recommendations to the Planning Minister.