Shire defends proposal for Anglesea Community and Health Hub

SOME community opposition is growing to the Surf Coast Shire’s Anglesea Community and Health Hub Precinct Plan, with concerns including the proposed housing elements on the site.

Located in McMillan Street, the precinct presently contains several buildings housing Barwon Health Services and Anglesea Medical Centre, Anglesea’s memorial hall, kindergarten, community house, historical society, senior citizens centre and Angair, as well as the Anglesea Community Garden.

Under the precinct plan, now in its second round of community engagement, some of these buildings will be replaced with a two-storey integrated community and health hub.

Five townhouses and 14 apartments would be built at the rear of the site and are intended to “address the key worker accommodation crisis”, according to the shire’s website.

In their submission to the shire, Angair stated it could not support the proposals for the precinct as “the current planning process has been flawed”.

“We understand that the Victorian government and the Surf Coast Shire are keen to develop affordable housing for key workers in Anglesea, and see this as an opportunity to renew tired facilities in the community precinct in McMillan Street,” Angair president Sally White wrote.

“We share this vision with some reservations.

“We are concerned that the publicly available plans do not provide a satisfactory solution to the key current users of the precinct, do not adequately canvas the future potential uses of the site, and do not provide a compelling business case for the planned investment of public funds.”

Some residents have also criticised the overall cost of the project, which could run into the tens of millions of dollars.

Shire general manager of placemaking and environment Chris Pike said community members and agency representatives had “provided valuable input” that informed the iterative design process since the project’s inception.

“This input is how we’ve got to the layout – a draft concept – that we are currently testing with community.

“The results of the current phase of engagement will be shared with the community, as will further opportunities to participate in a deliberative engagement process planned for March/April.

“This process will get us closer to the planned outputs for this project, which are a council-endorsed precinct plan and a funding strategy. We will use this to identify potential funding sources and an implementation plan.”

He said the shire was exploring the suitability of its land for social and affordable housing as part of its Affordable Accommodation Action Plan.

“An analysis of 90 parcels of Crown and council-owned land identified that other sites in Anglesea were not suitable as they were in planning zones and overlays that won’t permit residential development due to things like high bushfire risk and significant environmental and cultural landscapes.”

For more information on the plan or to complete a survey, head to surfcoast.vic.gov.au/About-us/Your-Say/Anglesea-Community-and-Health-Hub—Precinct-Plan