Community still wants Torquay impact study

SOME members of the Torquay community are continuing to call for an immediate consideration of how growth in Armstrong Creek will affect Torquay, but the Surf Coast Shire says it is not correct to suggest the council promised nine years ago to carry out an impact study.

The implications of growth on Torquay and how the council should respond were raised during public question time at the March council meeting, and again dominated question time at the April meeting.

The issue stems from a council resolution in April 2009 to initiate the Sustainable Futures – Torquay/Jan Juc 2040 that would, in part, “analyse the implications for the shire of the Armstrong Creek development and the Geelong Ring Road to identify and assess expected impacts on the social and economic conditions, environment and culture of Torquay, Jan Juc and Bellbrae”.

In response to a request at the March meeting for an expedited impact study, the shire said an impact analysis of Torquay’s growth including Armstrong Creek would take place in the fourth year (2020) of the existing Council Plan for 2017-2021.

“It is anticipated that by year four, Armstrong Creek’s development will have progressed and can be better analysed,” shire general manager of environment and development Ransce Salan said.

This sparked more questions at the April meeting, calling for an impact study to be carried out sooner.

“In essence the (council’s) answer was ‘we’ll do it another three years when there are more people at Armstrong Creek so we can ascertain the impact’,” Maurice Cole said.

“Does council realise how nonsensical their response was and the anger it created in the community?”

However, Mr Salan said the April 2009 resolution was part of preparing a Sustainable Futures Strategy for Torquay/Jan Juc.

“That work has been completed and the strategy adopted in 2012 with an updated version adopted in 2014.

“The resolution did not call for an impact study as is now being requested.

“The impact study in the Council Plan is aimed at understanding the impact of additional population growth in Armstrong Creek and Torquay particularly on council’s facilities, services and beaches.”

In response to the queries, the shire has included part of the minutes from the April 2009 council meeting in the minutes of its April meeting, available on the shire’s website.