Chirnside Park residents rally against neighbouring Wonga Park Intrapac development proposal
A major developer has had its proposal to rezone a piece of rural site in Wonga Park knocked back, in its bid to subdivide the 10ha lot into 48 parcels of land. And it’s brought a smile to the faces of a committed community group.
Outer East
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A Chirnside Park community has won a David and Goliath battle to stop a major 48-lot housing development.
Yarra Ranges councillors unanimously agreed with a State Government planning panel recommendation to scrap a development proposal that would allow a 48-lot subdivision at 3 Holloway Rd, Wonga Park, on the border with Chirnside Park.
Intrapac Property’s proposal, known as planning scheme amendment C176, aimed to rezone and cut up the 10.2ha site to include 3ha of residential and 7ha of floodplain.
More than 40 nearby community members joined forces to form Chirnside Park Residents Action Group to fight the proposal.
Group member Shane Holland said residents who didn’t previously know each other had come together to mount a case against the developers — even raising money through GoFundMe.
Objectors to the proposal said the land was a nature hotspot, and numerous species of wildlife and habitat would be disrupted and destroyed if the development was to go ahead.
Council documents reveal the panel noted the site was suitable for some sort of residential development but recommended the amendment be abandoned.
Mr Holland said the decision was a huge win for all the residents who got on board the campaign.
“We were strangers a few months ago,” he said.
“It took a lot of investigation on our end, something the community wouldn’t usually do.
“We all had to come together to fight this.”
Intrapac senior consultant David Hodge said the company would submit another application for a development on the site.
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“The proposal put out was a 3ha development with 7ha of open space wetlands — a modest proposal,” Mr Hodge said.
“People are very attached to this as if it’s public open space, but it privately owned,” Mr Hodge said.
Mr Hodge said Intrapac would work on the panel’s recommendations, and work with the EPA and Yarra Valley Water, before resubmitting another application on the site.