Geelong council has completed its Urban Geelong long-term boundary review.
First conceived through the Greater Geelong Settlement Strategy, adopted by the council in 2020, the long-term boundary review was intended to define the limits of residential development as the city continues to grow.
The final report on the review largely confirmed Geelong’s existing urban boundaries, recommending three amendments to the settlement boundary.
Pending approval from the Minister for Planning, the area east of Coppards Road, Newcomb between the Bellarine Highway and Portarlington Road will now be within the boundary, as will 145 Harriott Road, Charlemont and 55 & 75 Williams Road, Mount Duneed.
The report also recommended a number of farm properties be rezoned as Rural Living Zones in Mount Duneed and Armstrong Creek.
Councillor Jim Mason thanked City officers for their work on the review over a long period of time.
“We understand that there are many tensions involved in urban development planning, tensions emanating from investors and developers, tensions around DALs (Distinctive Areas and Landscapes), tensions involving the environment, orderly and sequential planning, the ability to sustain new developments with current infrastructure and more,” Cr Mason said.
“So we’ve had well-founded recommendations based on careful assessment of set criteria, and I think the balance has been well met.”
Councillor Ron Nelson said it was a good result for some farmers who were struggling to make their properties viable.
“Residents of Kardinia Ward around Mount Duneed Road, White’s Road, Ghazeepore Road, have been telling me that the farmland they have is unfarmable,” he said.
“The last time I was down there, there were some cows on one of the properties and they were being removed because it’s just not viable to farm. So they will be able to have rural living (zoning), which means they’ll be able to subdivide them into smaller farmlets.”
