Retail strategy postponed – Moorabool Shire council meeting briefs

MOORABOOL Shire Council has postponed adoption of an updated retail strategy until at least next month.

The move follows a submission on the strategy and a presentation to the August meeting by a landowner who argued his property was a better site for identification as a bulky goods retailing zone.

Peter Closter, who owns land at 10 East Maddingley Road in Maddingley, told councillors his site had been identified before as an appropriate area for bulky goods retail development.

But he said if the proposed retail strategy was adopted, bulky goods development might not take place for as much as 10 years.

“The retail strategy identifies 10 to 12 hectares of land that’s required,” Mr Closter said. “There is one site that’s identified as part of this strategy and that’s 30 Fisken Street, and that’s only 3.7 hectares.

“One large retailer such as a Bunnings will take up 100 per cent of that site.

“If we want to entice national retailers, reduce escape expenditure and grow jobs in Bacchus Marsh, then sufficient land for bulky goods development is absolutely critical.”

Mr Closter said the shire needed to make a start on making land available for bulky goods retailers “immediately.”

In response to a question from Cr David Edwards, community planning and development executive manager Henry Bezuidenhout said the land Mr Closter was referring to would have to be rezoned to accommodate its use for bulky goods.

There was nothing to preclude a rezoning application being submitted now, but its “strategic justification” would have to be considered, he said.

Cr Rod Ward asked Mr Closter how long it would take for his land to be ready for bulky goods development if the process started now.

“If the council want to go through this identification analysis first, and then a rezoning and then a permit, we’re probably looking at six to eight years – if that was started today,” Mr Closter said.

“If council do as the officer suggested (in a report) and delay doing the identification, then that could add a further five years to the process, so it might be 13 years before we’ve got any bulky goods.

“There was a strategy done in 2018 for bulky goods and, six years later, that was just left sitting on the shelf.

“I think we’ve done enough strategies; it’s time to take some action.”

Cr Ward told the meeting a major industrial employer had recently moved its operation out of the municipality to Laverton, taking with it jobs and expenditure in the local economy.

Mr Bezuidenhout said 30 Fisken Street had been designated to meet expectations of need for bulky goods retail space “for the short to medium term, five to 10 years.”

“The proposal is not to proceed with any rezonings until we’ve got the short to medium term adequately addressed, and additional rezonings will cater for future growth,” he said.

Mr Bezuidenhout said future growth was years away and Fisken Street would adequately cater for bulky goods retailing in the five-to-10-year period with development after that tied to future growth.

Proposed plans did not exclude Mr Closter’s land from being subject to a rezoning application but that there was no immediate need for it, he said.

Mr Closter told councillors there was already commercial demand for land.

“We know that Bunnings want to come to town, we know Chemist Warehouse want to come to town, we know that Horseland want to come to town,” he said.

“Bacchus Marsh is about to reach a critical threshold where all these national retailers, their population triggers are reached and they want to come to town.

“If just that 3.7-hectare site is the only one available and Bunnings go there, then there’s no opportunity for any other retailer to come to (the) site.”

Councillors voted to wholly defer the matter until a new formal recommendation could be prepared.

Mount Egerton speed limit remains

A petition from Mount Egerton residents seeking a reduction in the speed limit on part of the Ballan-Egerton Road has failed.

Fourteen residents signed the petition, which sought a reduction of the existing 80 kilometres per hour speed limit to 60 or 70 kilometres per hour to improve safety for local traffic and lessen incidences of speeding.

“Due to speeding drivers and a crest at Devlins Road, it has become a safety hazard for residents entering and exiting their properties,” the petition said.

An officers’ report said a review of the area near the intersection determined the existing speed limit was appropriate.

The Department of Transport and Planning also had indicated it would not support a reduction, it said. Council officers will ask police to crack down on speed in the area.

Hospital assurance sought

Councillors want Western Health and the State Government to stand by a promise that no services would be lost after the 2021 absorption of the Bacchus Marsh & Melton Regional Hospital into Western Health.

Cr Ward successfully moved that the shire put its request in writing to Premier Jacinta Allan, Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas, Western Health chair Professor Jill Hennessy and Member for Eureka Michaela Settle.

According to his motion, Western Health gave commitments at the time of the takeover that the hospital would remain open, that no jobs would be lost and that funding for services would be increased.

Similar assurances came from the government, but Cr Ward said he was alarmed to learn in June that government budget cuts could result in decreased services.

“This is a major concern not just for Bacchus Marsh but for all Moorabool Shire Council residents, and adds a further layer of stress, anxiety and uncertainty for staff at the Bacchus Marsh & Melton Regional Hospital who are worried about their jobs and the impact this may have on local services,” he said.

Push to save youth program

The State Government will be asked to reverse a decision to cut funding to the Youth Engagement Support program.

Cr Ward raised the issue as an item of urgent business in response to what he described as an “impassioned email” from a young woman received on the day of the meeting.

He said the funding allowed a second youth worker to be employed in the municipality.

The email from a program participant indicated “they were devastated” by the cut which meant the youth program would end in December.

“The termination of the program, in her own words, could lead to an increase in youth crime, disengagement and reversing the progress made over the last few years,” Cr Ward said.

Cr Ward’s motion, seconded by Cr Tonia Dudzik and carried unanimously, was that the council write to the Premier Jacinta Allan, Minister for Youth Natalie Suleyman, Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn and Member for Eureka Michaela Settle.