By NOEL MURPHY
A $300 MILLION housing estate at Fyansford has moved a step nearer with City Hall giving the nod to planning paperwork needed to push the ICD Property project ahead – without public input.
ICD Property recently bought the old Geelong Cement Works land and former CSR Quarry site from the Moltoni Corporation, which tried for years, ultimately unsuccessfully, to get the new suburb up and running.
City Hall will now advise the State Government it supports a planning scheme change for the Fyansford site – tipped to see 1000 new homes — without putting the plans out to the public for comment.
Sales of stage one of the development were launched earlier this month.
The City’s Cr Michelle Heagney said both properties had already been rezoned to enable major residential and accompanying commercial and community development.
She said the Greater Geelong council backed the plans because they would have “no impact on the community or surrounding landowners”.
She said the planning scheme change was “essentially revising the format of previously approved development, with relocation of the site for a future neighbourhood shopping centre”.
Cr Heagney said the relocation of the future neighbourhood shopping centre provided better accessibility and better separation from future more sensitive residential uses.
If the State Government did not agree to the planning changes, the council would put the changes to the public “in the normal manner”, if Spring Street allowed it to do so.
