By NOEL MURPHY
GEELONG should consider slowing its housing boom until infrastructure catches up, a planning expert has warned.
Melbourne University Associate Professor Carolyn Whitzman said Geelong could suffer the dramatic work-life imbalances of neighbours such as Werribee and Point Cook if trains, schools and roads failed to keep pace with residential growth.
Geelong should also consider growth limits as Melbourne’s urban sprawl moved ever closer, she said.
“Geelong is effectively now part of metropolitan Melbourne, not that this is a great thing,” Dr Whitzman told the Independent this week.
“Certainly, Wyndham (Werribee) is talking growth management – slowing down residential development until infrastructure provision catches up.
Dr Whitzman said Wyndham needed one or two schools every year for the next 20 to keep up with its growth rate.
Problems in provision of health and social services as well were driving residents to use facilities and services at Geelong rather than Melbourne, she said.
“Anecdotally, many of the residents in Werribee I know use health, educational and social services in Geelong – much easier to access than central Melbourne.”
Geelong acting mayor Bruce Harwood rejected capping growth, saying management was the issue.
“You can’t stymie growth. You have to manage it and ensure proper infrastructure occurs in the growth period not afterward.
“Council has said very clearly for some time that proper public transport and an increase in capacity are essential to growth in the region.
“It’s not a new phenomenon that Werribee uses our schools and other infrastructure, it’s been going on for decades, but as that grows the stress grows on our infrastructure and council recognises this.
“Some of our priorities include the Bellarine bypass, increased medical infrastructure in the north and rail infrastructure are all part of council’s consideration for the future.
“You can’t put a moratorium on growth. It’s about managing growth and ensuring infrastructure in place during growth, not afterward like Tarneit and Hoppers Crossing and Truganina.”
Cr Harwood said schools, a rail link and a new Epworth
Hospital at Waurn Ponds would support residential development in Geelong’s Armstrong Creek growth area.
Council expects Geelong’s population to grow 50 per cent by 2031 from 215,000 to
302,000, with Surf Coast rising from 26,000 to 41,000.
