Stakeholders wait on final DAL advice

A PLANNING panel is mulling its final advice to the Victorian Planning Minister on a long-term strategy for housing development on the Bellarine Peninsula.

The Victorian government is due to release a Statement of Planning Policy (SPP) for the region in the coming weeks after a public hearings process that finished earlier this month.

The SPP would lock in town settlement boundaries for 50 years around Bellarine towns to preserve their character and provide environmental protection for the important landscape.

A Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) has 40 business days from the close of hearings – which equates to a date before August 3 – to provide its final report to the state government.

Pascoe Vale MP Lizzie Blandthorn is Victoria’s new Planning Minister after taking the role from outgoing MP Richard Wynne during a Cabinet reshuffle during the past week.

Ms Blandthorn will make the final ruling on the SPP after receiving the SAC recommendation.

The SPP would consider advice provided from the SAC and mark the end of a Distinctive Area and Landscape (DAL) process initiated in October 2019.

A host of submitters including landholders, housing developers, local residents and community groups presented their case on a draft SPP during online hearings that lasted from April 26 until June 8.

Development companies were arguing for expanded town settlement boundaries to meet future demand for housing in the area, while local residents were resoundingly in favour of fixing town boundaries to preserve environmental and lifestyle values of their communities.

Community associations representing Ocean Grove, Barwon Heads, Point Lonsdale, Queenscliff and combined Bellarine towns were among the groups to speak against further expansion during hearings.

The City of Greater Geelong and Borough of Queenscliffe also preferred halting further expansion.

Premier Daniel Andrews and retiring Bellarine MP Lisa Neville have also sided with locals and said they would like a similar outcome to the Surf Coast SPP handed down earlier this year, which ruled out further housing development in Torquay’s Spring Creek valley.