By Helen Velissaris
There are renewed calls to make the South East green wedge zone permanently immune from over-development.
Activists and some Greater Dandenong councillors want to see the area have a permanent boundary, preserving its ecological landscape for years to come.
Defenders of the South East Green Wedge secretary Barry Ross wants the boundary set in stone to stop speculation on the zone’s future.
“At the moment there’s a lot of speculation going on land in the green wedge,” he said.
“Land bankers are buying large properties and speculating for it to be re-zoned because the value (of their property) goes up by a factor of 10.
“So long as that keeps happening there will always be uncertainty.”
Greater Dandenong Council voted to approve the subdivision of the green wedge in mid-2016 and Mr Ross said the council was lobbied strongly by land owners who wanted the change.
The issue has come to a head when it was recently revealed that Antonio Madafferi, who owns several hectares of land in the green wedge, had been campaigning to allow his landholdings to be sub-divided.
He is a wealthy grocer and part owner of the La Porchetta pizza chain.
Mr Madafferi’s business, Madan Nominees Ptd Ltd, hired Mornington development lobbyist John Woodman to press Greater Dandenong Council on his behalf.
They wanted to see the minimum green wedge land holding size be lowered from six hectares to 0.2 hectares.
The subdivision motion marginally passed 6-4, but was quashed by State Planning Minister Richard Wynne.
He has vowed to keep the green wedge intact as is.
“We cannot be clearer: The green wedge is off limits for inappropriate development,” a spokesman for Mr Wynne told the Journal.
“Labor promised to protect the green wedge from developers that want to attack it and that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
The council’s City Planning, Design and Amenity Director Jody Bosman said the council is open to green wedge zone development but only for appropriate uses that respect the environmental, cultural and landscape values.
“Further land subdivision and small lot excision are strongly discouraged,” Ms Bosman said in a statement.
“It is important that further development does not compromise existing agricultural businesses and does not restrict agricultural practices and activities.
Greens councillor Matthew Kirwan believes the whole area will change if development is allowed.
“It would totally compromise that land as green wedge,” he told the Dandenong Journal.
“This piece of land from an agricultural and ecological perspective is the most valuable part of the green wedge.”
Greater Dandenong councillor Angela Long said she was concerned that homeowners who bought around the zone for the lifestyle and scenery will be worse off.
“People who bought into the properties down there expected it to stay that way,” she said.
“We haven’t got much green wedge left, it seems to be encroached on all the time.
“I’d like to see it stay the way it is.”
Most recently, Greater Dandenong Council approved the DandyFresh application to develop a produce market in the green wedge-zoned land along Harwood Road.
Mr Wynne is currently considering the appropriateness and scale of the development and has asked the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning to provide him with advice.
