THE business behind a print advertisement urging more housing development on the Bellarine claims the Bellarine Distinctive Area and Landscape (DAL) program was \u201cnot a fair and transparent process\u201d.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Melbourne planning and property consultancy Dominion Property Group, which authorised the \u201cOpen Letter to Daniel Andrews\u201d ad that ran earlier this month, said last week that the ad was \u201cin large part a reaction to the shortcomings of the Statement of Planning Policy (SPP) consultation process itself\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was also a response to a \u201cworrying lack of analysis that underpins the draft SPP \u2013 particularly of the impacts on businesses, jobs and the local economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMultiple requests were made for an independent advisory committee to be appointed, as was the case for previous DAL processes, so submissions could be independently and transparently assessed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs it stands, the DAL consultation is not a fair and transparent process and there are real concerns that what is proposed will have detrimental impacts on Bellarine communities, particularly businesses, in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Public submissions to the draft SPP closed more than three weeks ago, but the spokesperson said that the ad\u2019s publication after the deadline was not deliberate.<\/p>\n
They said \u201cstandard advertising costs\u201d were paid for the ad to run but declined to reveal a specific figure.<\/p>\n
They claimed \u201cnumerous other businesses\u201d apart from the 13 mentioned in the ad were also opposed to the Bellarine DAL in its present form, and that \u201cothers elected not to sign the letter and make their opposition public because of concerns about aggression from the anti-business contingent that does not acknowledge businesses\u2019 legitimate concerns about the DAL\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to the spokesperson, Dominion Property Group has received no response to the ad from the Premier nor any of the local Labor MPs, nor anyone from the Victorian Opposition.<\/p>\n
One of the many changes outlined in the DAL\u2019s draft SPP are settlement boundaries for all of the Bellarine Peninsula\u2019s towns.<\/p>\n
Developers with an interest in land outside these boundaries have been calling for the boundaries to be expanded.<\/p>\n