City ‘rushed through rezoning of own land’

Developers have accused City of Greater Geelong of bending the rules in a bid to sell its own land for development.
They say the rezoning of City-owned land at Lara for high-density industrial use raises concerns about conflict of interest and transparency of planning processes.
Council recommended an “expedited” process with no independent panel review of the rezoning application before sending it to the Planning Minister for approval.
Urban Development Institute of Australia’s Tony De Domenico said his Geelong members were particularly angry council rushed its own application when they usually waited years for rezoning approvals.
Mr De Domenico said the faster process would save the City hundreds of thousands of dollars, “maybe a million”, compared to developers who had to haul projects the full length of the planning system.
“The big issue is that if everyone was treated equally there would be no problem,” Mr De Domenico said.
“If the City wants to be a developer it should compete on an equal footing with all the other developers.
“It appears this could be a conflict of interest because it is City-owned land.”
Mr De Domenico said bypassing an independent panel cast doubt over the transparency of the process.
“The ratepayers weren’t involved, so it’s now open for some to believe there might be something wrong,” he said.
Mr De Domenico brushed off arguments a speedy rezoning was essential to open land for industrial development and subsequent job creation.
He said the residential developments of his organisation’s Geelong members also promised job creation with the added benefit of combating the region’s looming land supply crisis.
Councillor Rod Macdonald, who holds the planning portfolio, said the process was “accelerated” because the 500-hectare site off Heales Road already had industrial zoning.
Council had simply applied for a higher-density zoning so it could adjust allotment sizes according to likely demand, he said.
A panel decision was unnecessary because the few objections were either irrelevant or addressed before the application was finalised, Cr Macdonald said.
He ruled out council’s ownership as an influence on the process.
“I reject out of hand it had anything to do with council,” he said.
“The bottom line is this site didn’t have the planning issues that usually occur. It was already industrial and not a greenfields site.
“Why should we have held it up when we could put it through quickly.”
Cr Macdonald said private owners held most of the site compared to the City’s holding of “30 to 40 per cent”.
Rezoning of the site had strong backing from State Government, business and the private land owners, he said.
“The importance of this land can’t be underestimated – it’s close to the airport, the ring road, the port and rail.”