Spring Creek bid

By Cherie Donnellan
SURF Coast Shire will assess a Spring Creek development application by Geelong’s Christian College despite councillors recently slamming development in the controversial site.
Christian College chief executive officer Daryl Riddle told the Independent he had met with a number of “councillors and council officers” in a “special meeting” two months ago to discuss the school’s development plans for its Spring Creek site.
Yet, Mayor Brian McKiterick wrote on the council’s website on September 4 that councillors “expressed disappointment” at a July council meeting with a “delay” by planning minister Matthew Guy after failing to designate Duffields Road as the town boundary.
Council has twice attempted to develop Spring Creek, but abandoned them after residents’ fierce protests.
The shire then sought Mr Guy’s approval to set Duffields Road as the official boundary in April this year.
In a letter to Christian College parents last week, Mr Riddle said the school sought an amendment last month for a “rezoning from the current farming zone to a special use zone”.
“If successful, this will allow for the development of the school on the property,” the letter read.
It noted the college’s plans to develop a Torquay campus on a Spring Creek site, bought in March 2007, had become “overly protracted” due to “recent planning policy by the Surf Coast Shire”.
Mr Riddle said the school’s plans to develop the campus were “answering the needs of the Surf Coast community”.
“We have hundreds of students who travel from Torquay and its surrounds every day to come to our school.”
Mr Riddle said the College had no plans to develop residential dwellings on its site.
“We’re talking about building a school, not something Torquay doesn’t need.”
Speak Up for Spring Creek spokesman David Bell “hoped” the new elected council would “reject (the plan) as it doesn’t reflect the local community’s view”.
Mr Bell criticised state planning policy calling it “a system that appears to favour those with money rather than a straight-forward, transparent and open process”.
“More weight must be given to local council planning policy that reflects local communities rather than a one-size-fits-all planning,” he said.