KINGSTON Council is pushing for the planning guidelines for golf course redevelopments to be reformed.
At the next Municipal Association of Victoria meeting, Kingston Council will ask other present councils to request that the state government review its planning guidelines for the conversion of golf course land for other purposes.
The state government’s revised planning guidelines for golf courses was published in June 2020. A report prepared by Kingston Council officers read that “Kingston City Council has concerns regarding the useability of the golf course guidelines and consider they are not an efficient or adequate tool for assessing golf course rezoning proposals.”
“The guidelines do not provide sufficient weight or consideration of the role that golf course land can play in contributing to open space networks, projects that assist in addressing the state government renewable energy targets and opportunities to counteract the urban heat island effect,” the report read. “The guidelines are unable to properly guide decision making for proposals that can have significant impacts on environmental values associated with golf course land.”
Kingston Council officers also wrote that the consultation process undertaken for golf course conversions is flawed. “The guidelines require community consultation to be undertaken when its likely that the proponent has already predetermined the optimal development outcome that they are likely to pursue,” council officers wrote.
In the Kingston municipality, the former Kingswood Golf Course in Dingley Village is currently being considered for redevelopment. Plans to develop around 800 dwellings at the site have been in the works for years – a report on the proposal was handed to the planning minister’s office in March 2022 but a final decision has still not been made. AustralianSuper purchased the land for $125 million in 2014.
Around 8000 objections to the redevelopment plans at Dingley Village were submitted to Kingston Council. Save Kingswood Group Inc president Kevin Poulter says that the development would overcrowd the local area. He said the project “is about an attempt to suddenly impose a 20 percent increase in Dingley Village population, with all the stresses that brings on services and infrastructure.”
“There is only a single lane road in and out of Dingley Village, and when it becomes busy it already takes one hour to drive through Dingley Village and another hour to reach the nearest railway station,” he said.
Victorian planning minister Sonya Kilkenny was contacted for comment.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 26th July 2023