A REPORT into the planned redevelopment of Kingswood Golf Course in Dingley Village is expected to be handed to the planning minister soon.
The golf course is now owned by AustralianSuper, which paid $125 million for the land in 2014. Its plans to subdivide the land and build hundreds of houses has turned into a saga which has stretched years, with Kingston Council first abandoning the planning scheme amendment in 2018.
Revised plans for the Dingley Village site were referred to the state government’s golf course redevelopment standing advisory committee last year. The proposal currently under consideration is to subdivide the land into 823 lots to build dwellings with a maximum height of three stories.
Public hearings assessing the redevelopment were held by the advisory committee last year and concluded on 23 December. The advisory committee was due to hand its final report on the project to the planning minister by mid-March, according to Engage Victoria’s website.
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning was contacted for an update on when the report would be released.
The report will assess if the plans satisfy the state government’s Planning Guidelines for the Conversion of Golf Course Land to Other Purposes.
Kingston Council has taken a public stance calling for changes to the submitted plans. The mayor Steve Staikos said “council has invested significant time and approximately $500,000 to ensure the impacts of the proposed development on the local community were understood and properly considered by the advisory committee prior to making its decision.”
“Council made a commitment to the local community that we would make a comprehensive submission to the standing advisory committee to ensure community concerns about the proposed redevelopment were delivered loud and clear. I’m proud we have delivered on that,” he said.
Previous plans for the site have sparked opposition from residents. Kingston Council received more than 8000 submissions about the proposal in 2018, the majority in opposition.
After revealing its new plans last year AustralianSuper released a statement which read that “feedback from locals over the past five years and the input of planning experts has been used to design an inclusive, attractive, high-quality development to enhance the area for everyone who calls Dingley Village home” (“New plans for golf course redevelopment” The News 30/6/21).
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 30 March 2022
