By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Battlelines have been drawn on Keysborough Golf Club’s proposal to relocate from its Green Wedge course and rezone it for housing.
As part of the plan, the club plans to shift to 256-356 Pillars Road, Bangholme and offer a massive 71-hectare sports precinct nearby to Greater Dandenong Council.
The final decision on rezoning the Green Wedge A site would be made by not the council, but Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny.
South East Defenders of the Green Wedge has slammed the potential loss of the golf course as a “critical piece of the South East Green Wedge”, “significant habitat” and “one of the most significant sites of remnant vegetation left in Greater Dandenong”.
However, Keysborough Golf Club argues that its site on the edge of the Urban Growth Boundary is “nothing like most people imagine as Green Wedge”.
“It’s an infill site in a middle-ring suburb, surrounded by existing housing and major roads,” club captain Darrell Swindells says.
“Listening to what the Government wants, the best way to solve our housing shortage is infill.
“We don’t think we’re burning too many trees. Our intention is to create a course (in Pillars Road) as good as we’ve got and plant trees as part of the process.”
Defenders of the Green Wedge spokesperson Matthew Kirwan said the new ‘South East Sports Hub’ at Pillars Road made “no sense”.
Except perhaps for the club’s partner developer Intrapac to “open up” the Bangholme Green Wedge, he said.
“It is the heart of the original Carrum Carrum Swamp and flood-prone land.
“It has no public transport accessibility.
“Surely with increasing climate change and the recent Maribyrnong River flooding episode we know that this land is best left alone.
“Any new development in the Greater Dandenong Green Wedge, recreational or otherwise, will need new drainage and upgraded road infrastructure.
“The cost of maintaining (it) particularly in a flood prone environment will be borne by the Greater Dandenong rate payer.”
The new sports hub – nearly the size of Casey Fields – would address an “acute shortage” of outdoor sports facilities for the next 25 years, according to its proponent.
It would include passive outdoor spaces, a landscaped wetlands and a recycled water supply from Eastern Treatment Plant.
Meanwhile, Greater Dandenong councillors voted on 22 May to defer a report on consulting residents in Keysborough South about the proposal.
In the coming week, the golf club will further brief councillors.
Among them was Cr Sean O’Reilly, who commented that after past rebuffs, the club’s plan was likely to land in the “rough” rather than the “fairway of success”.
Mr Swindells said the rezoning was a State Government decision but “if the council are not behind you, you’re pushing uphill”.
“This is about the future of the golf club.”
He said the plan was to keep Keysborough Golf Club as the only golf venue in Greater Dandenong – 1.1 kilometres from its present home.
The sale of its Hutton Road site would allow it to invest in a “modern, accessible” course with more facilities and to promote golf to families and young people, Mr Swindells said.
In 2015, the club signed a 10-year option with developer Intrapac – meaning there was a two-and-a-half year window to rezone.
The originally estimated $40 million windfall to the club would be “probably not as much” but still a “sizeable benefit”, Mr Swindells said.
