Melbourne Racing Club has not provided enough detail on how it will safeguard new homes from flooding when it redevelops Sandown Racecourse into a new suburb, the local council has warned.
A special planning committee set up by Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny is receiving public submissions on the racing club’s request to rezone the 112-hectare Springvale site for 7500 homes. The club wants the contentious project to help fund its $300 million redevelopment of Caulfield Racecourse.
City of Greater Dandenong councillor Rhonda Garad fears “another Maribyrnong” could occur if warnings about drainage at Sandown aren’t properly addressed,Credit: Penny Stephens
Sandown has been a horse racing track since 1888 and has hosted motor sports since the 1960s. The proposed planning scheme amendment would allow a new suburb to be built in four stages over 20 years, with apartment developments up to 12 storeys high, along with retail and commercial space and parkland.
While Dandenong Council has stated it is “generally supportive of the concept”, its officers have flagged “significant concerns” about a lack of information about how storm water and flood flows from two waterways – Mile Creek and Police Road main drain – running through the site will be dealt with before house building starts.
“Not only does council have this concern, but also Melbourne Water and South East Water – as the expert authorities in this space – also share the same concern,” Dandenong Council’s head of environmental planning, Brett Jackson, told the most recent council meeting.
The council has taken issue with the proposed sequence of the planning process, which would mean the rezoning happening before a stormwater master plan had been signed off, and is concerned about flood mapping for the area being out of date.
“Council considers it is necessary to demonstrate now that stormwater and flood flows can be managed on-site, and not adversely impact on land downstream,” council’s submission reads.
“If the amendment is approved, and it is subsequently discovered that stormwater cannot be effectively managed on-site, there could be implications for future occupants of the site, as well as surrounding existing residents.”
Greens councillor Rhonda Garad said she shared those concerns, and that resident experiences in the 2022 Maribyrnong River floods were front of mind. “If they don’t adequately mitigate the water on-site, there [will] be downstream impacts and that could be devastating for those people who at this stage have no idea this is happening,” she said. “The impacts could be enormous.”
A Melbourne Water spokesperson confirmed the authority had asked for “changes to the developer’s proposed drainage and flood management strategy to ensure that new developments don’t negatively impact neighbouring or downstream properties”.
The council also flagged concern about what the sequence of the redevelopment would mean for the promised open space.
“The primary areas of open space are located inside the horse racing track, which means they will either not be developed until after horse racing ceases, or community access to the areas of open space will be limited,” officers wrote.
The council raised concerns about the four different precincts being redeveloped in an “ad hoc or disjointed way with no direct or convenient access to public transport, public infrastructure and community facilities”, and also argued there should be 20 per cent affordable housing baked into the plans, instead of the current 5 per cent.
The ultimate decision-maker on the redevelopment will be the planning minister.
Sandown in 1965.Credit: State Library of Victoria
The racing club said in a statement that its proposed redevelopment “has had regard to flooding issues, management of these issues and stormwater drainage” and that those would be considered by the Sandown Racecourse Advisory Committee panel, set up by Kilkenny.
The planning minister was approached for comment but her office did not respond. Public exhibition of the plans and submissions are open until June 24.
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