Residents grill council over Torquay North roadblocks

COMMUNITY opposition to the roadblocks in Torquay North is still running hot, with the Surf Coast Shire council facing 48 questions about the issue at its meeting last week.

The council set up the barriers on July 13 to close Glengarry, Inshore, Marine and Centreside drives to vehicle traffic at the junction of The Quay and Quay 2 estates, and says the roadblocks will remain until the traffic lights at the new intersection of Surf Coast Highway, Coombes Road and Rosser Boulevard are completed in late 2021.

Many Quay and Quay2 residents are extremely critical of not only the roadblocks but also the council’s rationale for installing them.

An online petition started on August 16 urging the shire to immediately reverse its decision has gathered nearly 700 signatures, and 24 people put their criticisms forward at the August 25 meeting online via Zoom. Questions included why the council installed the roadblocks in the first place, whether a traffic count or other assessment was used to support the decision, what alternatives were considered, whether any consultation was carried out first, the placement of the barriers, the legal basis for the closures, and whether the council would reduce the rates of affected properties.

The shire’s acting chief executive officer Anne Howard, who spent about an hour answering the questions, said the problem the council was trying to solve was “how an early release of land titles could be allowed in the Quay 2 estate without having an unplanned traffic impact on the existing Quay residents”.

She said planning approval for Quay 2 was based on a traffic report provided by developer Intrapac indicating 6,800 vehicles would come and go from Quay2 each day via the yet-unbuilt traffic lights.

“Council is aware that the early stages of Quay 2 had already contributed to higher traffic on local roads, notably Marine Drive. Council had traffic counts on a number of roads that showed this to be the case.

“Some community members had already been raising concerns through emails, phone calls and site meetings about these issues, and during the recent budget submission process we heard about the need for the road network to be properly completed to minimise impacts on Quay residents.

“Other data considered advice from the developer about how quickly housing construction was occurring in the Quay 2 estate. Based on the current approvals and rates of construction, it is estimated that about two-thirds of the estate will have residents living there by Christmas, generating more than 7,500 vehicles from the development plus another 100 blocks expected to be under construction.

“It was felt that on balance, adopting an arrangement that mostly closely resembled the conditions of before Quay 2 was the best way to ensure Quay residents weren’t unreasonably impacted. We have received a lot of feedback and have tried to let people know that we will let things settle for a few weeks, monitor actual traffic counts to see how they might differ from the traffic report, and then we can reassess whether further changes should be made.”

Intrapac has been opposed to the roadblocks since their installation, with chief operating officer Max Shifman describing them in July as “a huge kneejerk reaction and unnecessary”.