Rural worker accommodation proposed for St Leonards

THE St Leonards Progress Association is querying an application to build accommodation for workers on a property in St Leonards, saying the development sits outside the new boundaries for the town under the Bellarine Distinctive Area and Landscape (DAL) process.

Context Planning has lodged an application with the City of Greater Geelong on behalf of Sea Bounty Pty Ltd to create rural worker accommodation on part of the land at 152-180 Old St Leonards Road.

The L-shaped building would contain 10 separate bedrooms, two communal bathrooms, and communal dining and lounge spaces.

“The proposal seeks the construction of a simple 10-room works accommodation and car parking within a new purpose-built facility designed only with workers’ accommodation in mind,” Context Planning stated in its town planning report.

Sea Bounty says it needs rural workers to staff its boats, which operate from Portarlington, and also work at its processing plant in Breakwater and on-site at the Old St Leonards Road on a seasonal basis.

Context Planning notes Rural Worker Accommodation is “a relatively new term within the Victorian Planning Provisions and is in response to the ongoing pressures on rural and regional agriculture in attracting seasonal workers”.

“A state government incentive to facilitate and co-fund the ability for farms to attract and retain seasonal workers has incentivised this application to construct workers accommodation for the farming of Australian blue mussels in the waters of Port Phillip Bay.”

Kevin Carey from the St Leonards Progress Association said he was personally neutral on the application but the proposal raised some concerns, including that the development was outside the St Leonards township boundary as set out by the Bellarine DAL, which came into effect in July 2023.

The Bellarine DAL draws the western side of the protected settlement boundary for St Leonards roughly north-south along Ibbotson Street, and 152-180 Old St Leonards Road is well beyond this boundary.

Mr Carey said Sea Bounty’s application was based on the city’s St Leonards Structural Plan from 2015, and the city was required to amend that plan by the end of August this year to reflect what was contained in the Bellarine DAL for St Leonards.

“This is the first application to the city for Rural Worker Accommodation, and varies from the norm of such applications in that those using the accommodation are employed remotely from the site.”

He said the St Leonards Progress Association believed the application should be deferred until September this year, and be assessed on the provisions of the Bellarine DAL.

In its town planning report, Context Planning argues its application complies with the DAL’s Statement of Planning Policy because the building’s car park and access uses established vegetation buffers to screen development, provides setbacks from road corridors and publicly accessible land of greater than 300m, and uses building forms, design detailing and materials and colours that immerse buildings within the landscape.

Public comment on the application closed on May 12.