NEED FOR SPEED: Developers urge city to quicken growth planning

LANDOWNERS in the Western Geelong Growth Area are ramping up pressure on the City of Greater Geelong to accelerate growth planning to make more residential land available sooner.

Stakeholders argue bringing new land to market will help tackle the region’s land shortage and help cater for its surging population, which has spiked further than recent estimates predicted.

One such owner is Bill McCann, whose family has farmed land west of Geelong since the 1840s and stand to be one of the big winners of its future development.

Mr McCann is eager to develop a land parcel immediately next to a McCanns Lane Precinct, which is west of the Geelong Ring Road and north of the Hamilton Highway.

The family is lobbying the city to include its land in the coming Precinct Structure Plan (PSP) for the area, which would bring about 1,500 extra residential lots to market years earlier than expected and mean the precinct could host more than 5,300 houses in total.

“It’s been a great place for our family to live over the years and we reckon it would be a great place for Geelong to grow,” Mr McCann said.

“We can have good land available for people to build on just as soon as the city give us the go-ahead.”

The family also suggested the land’s consolidated ownership could streamline planning and avoid a complicated process involving several landowners.

The city is considering the request as part of its decision about which precincts will next have PSPs developed, with a recommendation due for a council vote by the end of this year.

“As part of planning for future growth, the city has sought feedback from landowners in the medium-term precincts in the Northern and Western Geelong Growth Areas on which precinct should begin in 2023,” the city’s planning and economy director Gareth Smith said.

“McCanns Lane is one of the precincts being considered.”

Mr Smith said the city would balance the need for further greenfield supply with detailed planning to “support sustainable growth”.

The precinct is identified as a medium-term project under the council’s Northern and Western Geelong Growth Areas Framework Plan, which it adopted in 2020.

McCanns Lane and an area called Batesford North, north of Ballarat Road and east of Morrabool River, are understood to be strong candidates for the next round.

The city also anticipated it will finalise two structure plans now under development in 2023, with a Creamery Road Precinct plan due in the first half of the year and an Elcho Road Precinct proposal in the second half.

PSPs are the final step in the city’s planning process before landowners can receive subdivision permits.

Stakeholders point out that most of the city’s planning for the growth area happened before COVID-19 and its resulting boom in population, which has increased the urgency of strategy development.

Greater Geelong had a population of 271,100 in last year’s Census, up 13.8 per cent on the 2016 figure and almost 2.8 per cent annually – higher than the 2.5 per cent annual growth rate predicted in the 2020 framework plan.

The spike has manifested in housing market indicators such as Greater Geelong’s median house price of $795,000 in June, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria – up 14.2 per cent on the previous year and more than double the 2013 figure, when the growth areas were identified.

The city expects the combined Northern and Western Growth Area to be home for 110,000 residents by 2036, when the region’s population is expected to be around 400,000.