COUNCILLOR COLUMN – July 26, 2018

Major projects gaining traction
THE next few months will be exciting for Greater Geelong, with the Council team working hard alongside our new CEO Martin Cutter to progress a number of big issues and important projects.

As a councillor there’s a lot of information to be taken in and a multitude of viewpoints to balance before making a decision.

The approach to our Civic Accommodation is one example. This will likely be the biggest financial decision this ouncil will make in its term, and would see City of Greater Geelong staff brought together into one office building.

At the moment, staff are spread around nine different locations, which costs Council more than $2 million in rent annually, and leads to inefficiencies that could be avoided by having everyone under the same roof.

Also in the approval pipeline is the Settlement Strategy, which will set the direction for the region’s housing needs until 2036, including how we’ll handle continued population growth.

The draft strategy was put out for public comment and received 72 responses – around half of these relating to the Bellarine.

As I see it, the good news for the Bellarine community is the proposal of fixed boundaries and the re-badging of ‘growth hubs’ as ‘district townships’. This approach recognises the overwhelming community desire to curb the
sprawl and retain the unique character of each town on the Bellarine. A recent example of this philosophy in action was the endorsed Barwon Heads Structure Plan, comprising an agreed town boundary and planning controls designed to retain the local village vibe.

Budget approval and Bellarine projects
JUST as critical was Council’s endorsement of the 2018-19 budget at the 26 June Council Meeting. As a group, we three Bellarine councillors are actively seeking community feedback to guide increased funding for local projects and infrastructure in our next round. In the 2018-19 budget, the Bellarine components include:

• $4 million towards the Drysdale Integrated Children’s Centre, to be completed in 2019-20
• $300,000 to upgrade Ocean Grove’s Kingston Park Playground
• $250,000 for a masterplan of Greater Geelong and Bellarine shared trails
• $200,000 to upgrade Drysdale Town Square
• $150,000 to upgrade the litter fence around Drysdale landfill
• $110,000 to complete the Clifton Springs underwater sculpture park
• $50,000 for control of pests, plants and animals in rural and coastal environments
• $50,000 to protect water quality in Mason’s Creek, Drysdale
• $20,000 to review animal waste bins and bag dispensers and add as necessary.

The three Bellarine councillors are united in our passion to work together and identify what was missed in the 2018-19 budget and start planning for the next year.

Meeting with the Bellarine community associations
I’D LIKE to thank the leaders of each local Bellarine community association for their open invitation to meetings and ongoing communication. In my role as chair of the Strategy and Communications portfolio, I am particularly keen to understand the bigger strategic picture from the community viewpoint and to help Council communicate more effectively with ratepayers and residents.

(One way we’re now doing this is by live streaming our meetings – you can watch at geelongaustralia.com.au/meetings.)

All three Bellarine Councillors attend the regular combined community association meetings an we stay in close touch with local representatives from Point Lonsdale, Barwon Heads, OceanGrove, Breamlea, Portarlington, Drysdale, Clifton Springs, Leopold, Indented Head and St Leonards.

Focus on planning
AS CHAIR of the Planning Committee, I’ve developed an enthusiasm for planning that I never would have thought possible! The team at the City of Greater Geelong have been extremely supportive, as have my councillor colleagues on the committee. Together, we have addressed some tricky issues and I feel the group has discussed the challenges in the open forum very effectively. It is said that planning decisions always have a winner and a loser; I prefer to think that one party may simply end up less happy than another. There are no losers and there is always room for reasonable discussion and compromise.

The City receives around 1800 planning applications a year and issues close to 1700 permits. We are currently working with the CEO to identify some improvement opportunities and to make planning processes clearer for everyone.

Of all those 1800 decisions, only around four per cent end up at VCAT and, of those, VCAT overturns roughly 16 per cent. The rest are approved or approved with amendments. This is a pretty positive result given we deal with one of the most complex Planning Schemes in Victoria.