By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
GREATER Dandenong Council has left open plans for Keysborough Golf Club to develop a “golf and community multi-sport precinct” in the green wedge.
In the council’s draft green wedge management plan, it was stated that the council had “preliminary discussions” about the concept and a potential site directly opposite the golf course on Hutton Road.
“Although the proposal is in its infancy and may require rezoning of part of the golf club land, it should be seen as an opportunity for consideration,” the report stated.
The club launched an unsuccessful bid to the state Urban Growth Boundary Anomalies Advisory Committee in 2011 to rezone six per cent – or 4.5 hectares – of its golf course for housing development.
At the time the club’s general manager Dee Healey said the move would bolster the club’s “long-term viability”.
He said last week the club was “constantly assessing future opportunities”.
“The earlier possible part-subdivision and the draft (green wedge management plan) are just two of many factors.”
In its plan, the council proposes to rezone the golf course to Green Wedge A Zone – which prohibits intensive animal husbandry, abattoirs and waste transfer stations, to better protect the amenity of nearby residential areas.
It proposed no change to minimum lot sizes in what it named as the Hutton Road North precinct – which range from four up to 12 hectares.
Barry Ross, of Defenders of the South East Green Wedge group, was “comfortable” with smaller subdivisions in the golf course area under the draft plan.
“I really like the look of the report,” he said – though he was “apprehensive” about the push by landholders for more housing in the flood-prone zone.
“We just like it being kept as the Green Wedge and it has a wonderful potential.
“To keep chipping away at it will make it too small to be viable. It’s been a death by a thousand cuts over the years.”
