Plan study a ‘sham’: ratepayers

Hamish Heard
PUBLIC consultation over new guidelines to preserve Torquay and Jan Juc’s urban character were a sham, according to a residents’ group.
Torquay Residents and Ratepayers Association secretary Lyn Smith said Surf Coast Shire had made up its mind on the guidelines before consulting locals and would ignore residents’ pleas for minimum block sizes.
Planners were instead “determined” to allow blocks to be carved into tiny allotments and impose minimum setbacks and maximum plot-to-building-ratios to prevent high-density development, she said.
“A true public consultation would have acknowledged the desire of residents to have minimum lot sizes,” Mrs Smith said.
She said questionnaires circulated as part of a public consultation process were designed to deliver answers that agreed with the shire’s draft neighbourhood character study.
“In all the questions you had to either agree or disagree and I thought in most cases there were many answers you could give,” she said.
Mrs Smith said it was a “cop out” that the survey contained no questions about minimum lot sizes.
She said Torquay residents should feel betrayed that the township, a designated growth area, wasn’t protected by minimum lot sizes while landlocked towns of Anglesea, Airey’s Inlet and Fairhaven were.
“We have to accept Torquay must bear the brunt of development for the entire Surf Coast but it just seems unfair that our neighbourhood character doesn’t get the same protection as every other coastal town.”
“Especially seeing as (Torquay) has the space to restrict the density of development whereas the other townships apparently do not.”
A shire spokesperson denied theconsultation process ignored community views.
Responses on submission forms indicated widespread support for the planners recommendations, he said.
“Planners feel that, rather than using minimum lot sizes, a more responsive way to influence neighbourhood character is through controls on building height, setbacks, fencing, landscaping and the floor area of buildings,” the spokesperson said.
Imposing minimum lot sizes would be inconsistend with state policies aimed at promoting housing diversity, he said.
Councillors will vote on whether to adopt the Torquay Jan Juc Neighbourhood Character Study at next week’s council meeting.