Geelong council has authorised the sale of the former saleyards site, eight years after resolving to do so.
The City’s chief executive Ali Wastie is now authorised to sign off on the sale of the 4.5ha site at 125-135 Weddell Road, North Geelong, which has been the intention of the council since rezoning the land to Comprehensive Development Zone 4 and adopting the Geelong Saleyards Precinct Plan in June 2021.
The decision is also in line with the council’s recently-stated strategy of selling surplus assets in the interest of financial stability.
The council completed a community engagement process during June and July, received mixed responses. Of the 25 submissions made by the public, 13 were supportive while 11 opposed any potential sale, with more than half advocating for social and/or affordable housing.
Councillor Anthony Aitken, a member of both the 2017 and 2021 council groups, said the decision on “one of the most significant redevelopment opportunities in Geelong” was a historic one.
“It’s less than two kilometres from the CBD of Geelong, less than two kilometres from the wonderful waterfront,” he said.
“And it is less than a kilometre to the Melbourne Railway corridor in terms of the North Geelong Railway Station. It’s repurposing industrial land for the potential of up to 1300 people being able to live at that site location.
“I’m very proud to have been associated over the last eight years with this particular site location, and I’m even more proud tonight that we are making the final decision to sell the site, make it available for an appropriate investor and create a new suburb within two kilometres of Geelong.”
The decision was not unanimous, however, with Crs Emma Sinclair and Elise Wilkinson voting against the motion on the grounds that the council had no mechanisms to ensure social or affordable housing would be included in the development.
“By not taking the opportunity as a council to identify and explore this further in terms of its usability for social housing ourselves, we’re really relying on the developer to do that,” Cr Wilkinson said.
Cr Aitken said he was “pretty confident” the site would ultimately include “some affordable and social housing”.
