Councillors have encouraged people who visit, live and work in Geelong West to get involved in the final stage of community engagement for the contentious Pakington Street North Urban Design Framework (UDF).
Geelong council voted at Tuesday night’s meeting to go ahead with a deliberative engagement plan, which will involve a community panel of up to 60 people, with a view to finalising a UDF with strong community support.
The engagement plan has been prepared in consultation with the Help Save Pakington Street Community Group, which was instrumental in opposing the council’s last proposed UDF last year.
That previous, unsuccessful version of the UDFwould have allowed the council to potentially greenlight eight-storey residential developments in the north end of Pakington Street.
In February this year the council engaged Capire Consulting to lead the design and the delivery of this final engagement process.
Councillors warned this would be the last chance for the community to have their say on the Pakington North UDF, which has been in the works since 2018.
Cr Eddie Kontelj acknowledged community members may be feeling “a bit fatigued” by the lengthy process so far but urged them to get involved.
“I ask that all community members and residents that are interested in this area of Pakington Street to do (engage) because it’s the last opportunity now,” Cr Kontelj said.
“The next time it comes to the chamber it will be to vote on the UDF.
“There will be winners and losers… not everyone will be satisfied but at least you’ve had the opportunity to put forward your views, your opinions, your recommendations.”
Deputy mayor Anthony Aitken said the council had failed the community but this deliberative engagement plan was a chance to rectify that.
“We actually shouldn’t have hidden behind legislative processes of how to engage with our community,” Cr Aitken said.
“What we needed to do was to come up with a new process, and in fact, the community demanded it of us.
“I’m looking forward to what comes back from this 60-person panel.”
Cr Kontelj said he had been advised the recruitment process for the community panel would begin “in the coming week… I encourage everyone that’s interested to please put their application forward.”
