VCAT rules in favour of terrace plan

By Michelle Herbison
VICTORIA’S planning tribunal has quashed residents’ objections to a 35-lot development at 105-109 Sheepwash Rd, Barwon Heads.
The Independent reported last month that Barwon Tce residents were fighting the plans to save their “pocket of paradise” after council approved the development last June.
Margaret Pocock said residents wanted to retain the unsealed road with its native remnant vegetation instead of widening it for an entrance to the development.
A Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal summary said a permit would allow developers to subdivide the block and remove native vegetation.
The area had been zoned for residential purposes for many years, the summary said.
“The area cannot remain totally undeveloped … The use of Barwon Tce with its widening in places is an appropriate outcome for the protection of the coastal habitat and vegetation in the area.”