'No other way': Council doubles down on protecting prime agricultural land

It comes as Corangamite Shire councillors refused to grant a planning permit for two proposed two-lot subdivisions at an ordinary council meeting on Tuesday, May 28.

The first was to excise a dwelling at 580 Williams Road, Scotts Creek where the owner of the property wanted to retain the balance land for timber production.

The proposal would have resulted in lot one measuring 6.60 hectares (including the dwelling, outbuildings and a former dairy) and lot two measuring 62.21 hectares of balance farmland for the blue gum plantation.

Council officers had recommended councillors refuse to grant a permit as the shire's planning scheme discourages the creation of small rural-residential lots in productive agricultural areas which could also cause land-use conflict.

Coastal ward councillor Jamie Vogels signalled his intention to support the recommendation, noting there'd also been an influx of similar applications.

"We've been thrown a massive curve ball with the blue gums moving in and the fact the blue gums don't require any work force, the housing on their properties are obviously coming up for subdivision," he said.

"Our planning scheme does not allow this to happen easily, as it is and as should be the case, but with both sides of government signed up to net zero, it makes you wonder whether this is a fad (or) it's there for the long term and this is just the beginning. That's just some food for thought.

"The chances is the houses will be bulldozed, I think it's not a complete disconnect from agriculture to have the small lots through farming communities because I've got about seven of these types of small lots surrounding my property, they're not disconnected but closely related to agriculture ...

"I don't have issues, but obviously you can have issues depending on who lives there, that's less to do with the size of the property and more to do with the person you're lucky or not lucky enough to get next to you.

"I don't have a crystal ball but on these occasions there's no trigger to pull and no other way to go than the officer's recommendation."

Central ward councillor Ruth Gstrein agreed with Cr Vogels.

"I can't support this subdivision going through," she said.

"We do a little bit of crystal ball gazing when we do this, initially it's usually the people who are tied into the agricultural industries that do move into these houses and they have those connections rather than disconnect.

"But there's also an opportunity or misfortune that they don't connect or the properties are sold onto people who wanted to have a tree change but don't understand the ramifications of when this house has forestry right around it and it doesn't matter if its forestry, dairy or grazing - it's important the property does stay tied to the farm."

The application was denied unanimously.

The second, at 329 Centre Road, Simpson, proposed a first lot measuring 3.912 hectares similarly consisting of the dwelling and multiple outbuildings including a former dairy, and lot two measuring 105.4 hectares of balance farmland.

It was also knocked back by councillors due to similar reasoning.