‘Millionaire’s enclave’: Developers’ hit back on Spring Creek ban

Developers prevented from adding 1900 houses in the Spring Creek valley at Torquay have warned the council about the future of the town if the ban continues.

Developers banned from adding 1900 houses on more than 100 hectares in the Spring Creek valley at Torquay say the suburb would be turned into a “millionaires’ enclave” if the ban continues.

Spring Creek.

Lawyer for companies connected to developers Parklea and Okeland Communities, John Cicero, said the state government’s ban was biased and ignored independent planning advice.

“Constricting land supply has a direct relationship to affordability, so where will all of the local teachers, police officers, tourist workers, surfers, cleaners et cetera live?” Mr Cicero asked the Surf Coast Shire council meeting on Tuesday night.

“(This planning policy) will simply increase the price of housing in Torquay, where prices are already at levels that take Torquay beyond the reach of the majority of people.

“Is that what council want? To turn Torquay into a millionaires’ enclave where a block of land costs $700,000, $800,000?” Parklea, which owns 36ha of land near Spring Creek, and a company connected to Okeland Communities, is fighting the state government’s development ban in the Supreme Court.

On Tuesday, the shire endorsed the state government’s draft Surf Coast Shire planning policy, which includes the Spring Creek development ban, at its meeting via a 6-2 councillor majority.

A groundswell of community campaigning against development at Spring Creek, which the community says is a sensitive environmental area, prompted the Andrews government to commit to banning development in the area at the 2018 election.

Surf Coast Shire councillor Gary Allen said the benefits of supporting the state government planning policy and its Spring Creek development ban outweighed the cost.

Okeland Communities executive director Cameron Shephard said the company had owned 87ha at 80 Duffields Rd since 2005.

“We are a family (owned business) that cares deeply about the communities we create,” Mr Shephard told council.

Parklea director Don Walsh, who has decades of experience working in local government, said more analysis on the consequences of the Spring Creek development ban was needed.

Mr Cicero said state government’s planning policy for Surf Coast Shire was “irresponsible”, “blatantly flawed” and “created to deliver a political outcome with significant intended and unintended consequences across a 50-year period”.

In April, the government ignored independent advice that found residential development of the Spring Creek land should go ahead.

This month the Addy asked Premier Daniel Andrews if the government was developing a pattern of ignoring independent advice.

In response Mr Andrews said: “There’s a pattern of doing exactly what we said we would do. I said (the Torquay town boundary would remain at) Duffields Rd and not an inch further.”

Originally published as ‘Millionaire’s enclave’: Developers’ hit back on Spring Creek ban