City scraps plan to rezone Port grove

Karen Hart
GEELONG’S council has scrapped Portarlington’s controversial Olive Grove housing bid and sent plans for a separate 250lot development to an independent panel.
Councillors cited adequate land supply when they rejected the Olive Grove application to rezone 27 hectares.
Councillors agreed to review the plan in five years.
But ward councillor Tom O’Connor said the decision to scrap the Olive Grove bid was “totally unnecessary”.
“We’re going to see growth in the area like we’ve never seen before and I think it was totally unnecessary to abandon the plan,” he said.
However, Cr Rod Macdonald, who holds council’s planning portfolio, said the applicants could look to the future.
“Abandoning amendment C121 (for Olive Grove) for the present doesn’t preclude the possibility it could be rezoned for residential use at some time in the future depending on the need for additional supply,” Cr Macdonald said.
The proposed 250lot housing development in the Smythe Street and Tower Road area will go to the next level, with council to ask the Planning Minister to appoint an independent panel to hear submissions.
Cr Macdonald said the proposal for rezoning in the Smythe Street and Tower Road area was within Portarlington’s urban growth boundary.
Council reaffirmed the boundary in April when it adopted a Portarlington structure plan, he said.
“The structure plan identifies the need for further land in the Portarlington area to be released for residential purposes over the coming years,” Cr Macdonald said.
He believed that council’s recommendations for the land had addressed residents’ concerns about protecting views in the area.
“Council has agreed that the rezoning of the land would have minimal landscape impact,” he said.