SBHA to show united front at City Hall

SAVE Barwon Heads Alliance members will converge at City Hall next week to show their support for keeping their town boundary.

The City of Greater Geelong will consider submissions on the Barwon Heads Structure Plan at its next meeting on Tuesday, June 26, and the Alliance hopes a room full of people will represent a powerful front.

Back in June, the group forwarded more than 750 formal submissions in support of keeping their town boundary and the Barwon Heads Structure Plan Amendment C375 to the City.

“Only two submissions were received requesting rezoning of farmland to residential outside the current settlement boundary, 1920 Barwon Heads/ Geelong Road (50 hectares) and a consortium of three properties on the north side of the Barwon Heads/Geelong Road (39 hectares),” SBHA states.

“On these 89 hectares alone, at conventional housing density of 10-15 houses/hectare, this would mean 890 to 1,335 new households and with average households in Barwon Heads at 2.6 people, residential development on this 89 hectares would almost double the Barwon Heads population.

“If either submission were successful, this would set a precedent for all land west of the current boundary to be rezoned residential – a total of 140 hectares (2,100 new households = up to 5,460 additional residents).”

The council will consider submissions on the Barwon Heads Structure Plan and then refer the Amendment to the Planning Panels Victoria. CoGG has scheduled the Planning Panel hearing to start on August 20, where SBHA will represent its 2,800 members and 750-plus submitters.

“Our team of planning barristers, environmental experts and other experts are ready and looking forward to advocating for the Barwon Heads community and their clearly stated concerns,” SBHA states.

A bus will travel from Barwon Heads to City Hall on June 26 for locals to attend the Council meeting from 7pm and 9pm.

To book your free seat/s, text your name to 0438 866 603.

For more information on SBHA, head to savebarwonheadsalliance.org or follow them on Facebook