Councillor wants to carve up own farmland Plan for caravan park

Alex de Vos
A Surf Coast councillor wants to carve up eight hectares of his farmland at Torquay for a caravan park.
Keith Grossman said the caravan park would help meet the regions’ demand for low-budget-style accommodation.
He said potential developers had contacted him expressing interest in using his land for campers.
“There’s a lot of interest for that sort of thing (caravan parks),” Cr Grossman said.
“I’ve had a lot of enquiries from people wanting that sort of land to lease for that use.”
Cr Grossman said the park would be limited to caravans and motor homes.
“There won’t be any cabins,” he said.
The caravan park would border Torquay and Great Ocean Roads in a proposed Spring Creek growth corridor, Cr Grossman said.
“But we’ve got to wait for the re-zoning.”
Geelong Otway Tourism boss Roger Grant gave the caravan park a thumbs up.
“There’s a real shortage of caravan parks,” Mr Grant said.
“We’ve seen a lot of parks on the coast reduce their capacity or disappear because of the value of the land they’re on.
“All our studies indicate the demand for caravan spaces is in excess of supply.”
Mr Grant praised the site for Cr Grossman’s proposed park.
“It seems to be the right location, it’s a growth area,” Mr Grant said.
“But the reality is that people are just going to have to travel a little bit further to the beach because of a lack of private coastal caravan parks.”
Earlier this year a Tourism Australia report tipped caravans and camping as the main growth area for accommodation until 2020.
Through the Looking Glass: The Future of Domestic Tourism in Australia forecast that the total number of nights spent in caravan and camping accommodation would increase from 37 million to 45 million by the end of the next decade.
Cr Grossman’s proposal follows work on a controversial Great Ocean Road Coast Committee project to redevelop part of Torquay’s caravan park.
The committee plans to build about 25 units in the park, replacing some camping sites.
Hundreds of campers have rallied against the plan, fearing they will lose their sites.