The News contacted councillors Geoff Gledhill, Tamsin Bearsley, Ron Brownlees and John Ronke about their support for the proposal.
Council’s green wedge consultant Planisphere recommended the playing fields remain within Kingston’s green wedge zone in its Kingston Green Wedge Plan, which was completed in 2012.
However, Cr Geoff Gledhill said he believed the area should be converted to “an appropriately zoned residential” area.
“It’s logical to include that land since its utilisation is limited from the school’s point of view,” Cr Gledhill said.
Cr John Ronke said he had last spoken to Mentone Grammar about the Keysborough playing fields “about 18 months to two years ago” when he was mayor.
He said that at the time, the private school had been considering selling its land in Keysborough and relocating its playing fields to Heatherton. However, he added that Mentone Grammar “may have changed their mind since then”.
The News revealed last week that Mentone Grammar had made a late submission to Planisphere as it finalised its green wedge report in August 2012 for council consideration (‘Land plan puzzle’, The News, 12/2/14).
Kingston Council kept the submission confidential.
The News understands the elite private school asked for its Keysborough playing fields to be included in the Urban Growth Boundary, moving the land out of Kingston’s green wedge. This would open up the land for potential residential development.
Kingston Council initally advised The News that the school’s submission was no longer confidential but then refused to confirm the nature of the submission.
Council acting CEO Paul Franklin, on the advice of council’s freedom of information officer, said Mentone Grammar should be consulted about any release of documents or any discussion about contents of the submission.
Mentone Grammar principal Mal Cater said “communications” between council and the school were “confidential” and he would not comment “in fairness to all parties”.
Cr Ronke was more open about the possible future use of the Keysborough playing fields.
“It’s a very good school and better use of the land would place them in an excellent position,” he said.
He said the Kingston community could also benefit since land was currently under used.
Cr Ron Brownlees said Kingston Council could buy some of the land but added that this had not yet been discussed.
He echoed the thoughts of fellow councillors supporting the land rezoning proposal who believed it would be good for the community since the land was “under-utilised”.
Cr Brownlees stressed “nothing would happen” until after the planning scheme amendment was considered by state Planning Minister Matthew Guy.
Council officers are preparing a planning scheme amendment for the Planning Minister’s consideration.
“Even then, it would come back to council for debate and council officers would prepare a report on the matter,” Cr Brownlees said.
Cr Tamsin Bearsley said she made the decision to back the proposal “from a planner’s perspective”.
She said converting the area to a residential development zone “made sense”.
“Council officers would still have a look at it but I’ve never been keen to see a commercial zone along that strip of Springvale Rd,” Cr Bearsley said.
Cr Gledhill said a lot of the green wedge was “open, unmanageable space that’s unusable”.
“It’s a contentious and complex issue and we [council] will never achieve anything there unless there is compromise from everyone concerned,” he said.
All four councillors said they had not had any communication with Mentone Grammar about the playing fields since the school’s submission was submitted.
Mayor Paul Peulich voted against the proposal in September last year, citing concerns about “transparency”, abstained in December after becoming mayor in October, and decided not to use his mayoral “casting vote” to back a rescission motion last month. Crs Tamara Barth, David Eden, Steve Staikos and Rosemary West voted against the planning scheme amendment.
Mr Franklin advised The News that “council officers have not discussed Mentone Grammar’s green wedge plan with them”.
