Golf plan on course for work

KIM WATERS
COUNCIL has approved a 45-hectare redevelopment for North Geelong’s former golf course after eight years of negotiations with developers.
Councillors voted this week to clear the way for redevelopment of the former Geelong Golf Club site on the corner of Ballarat and Thompson roads.
A council spokesperson said developer Links Living had agreed to a new Section 173 Agreement with “obligations” including timing for the development of a golf course and construction of footpaths along the roads.
Council planning portfolio holder Rod Macdonald said Links Living agreed to build the continuous footpath around the site in five years.
Links Living controversially bought the course about eight years ago after the club struck financial problems.
The company won council support in 2006 for a redevelopment with nine holes, 200 building blocks and 120 retirement units but later dumped the plan as unviable and locked out club members.
Links Living spokesperson Ron Smith was “delighted” at council’s green light for the development.
The project would still have 320 residential lots, he said.
Blocks would cost from the “low $100,000s to $400,000”, he said.
Mr Smith expected construction to begin in “a couple of months”.