Developers told: settle down, boys

“Delighted” developers should prepare themselves for potential disappointment over Spring Creek, according to a community group.
Speak Up For Spring Creek’s David Bell said his group had a different reading of a panel report’s recommendations to council on the future of the creek area, west of Torquay.
He believed the recommendations meant a proposed 87-hectare development one-kilometre west of Duffield’s Road was not a foregone conclusion.
Mr Bell was responding to a story in last week’s Independent in which Urban Development Institute of Australia’s Victoria branch director, Tony De Domenico, said he was “delighted” the panel had reaffirmed the site as a “future urban growth corridor”.
But Mr Bell said Mr De Domenico’s comments reflected how groups could draw different conclusions from the same documents.
Mr Bell pointed out a panel report sentence noting that councillors’ decision to abandon a previous development plan for Spring Creek could lead to a “shift in thinking relating to the future of Torquay and Jan Juc”.
“The panel has said the decision on the Spring Creek corridor is up to the shire, the community and a range of stakeholders,” Mr Bell said.
“It does not say to the shire ‘You must build here’.”
Mr Bell also highlighted a section of the report which agreed with his submission that “there is a need to protect the attractiveness of the valley, the remnant vegetation and the vistas and environment”.
The panel had made it clear Spring Creek’s future would depend on community consultation and an eventual council decision, he said.
“Before anyone can say the development of the first kilometre…is a certainty, there is a process that must be gone through.”