Korumburra long lot saga on hold

WHILE the spectre of a Development Plan Overlay (DPO) still hangs over owners of the Bena Road Korumburra properties known as ‘long lots’, the group that attended Wednesday’s council meeting heard councillors speak and vote in support of deferring the matter until an unspecified future meeting.

Cr John Schelling issued the call for deferral in response to landowner concerns.

“I’d like to move that council defer consideration for the Bena Road long lots planning scheme and amendment authorisation request to a future council meeting to enable further councillor review and consideration of the broader strategic planning and community implications associated with requesting the amendment process,” he said.

Sentinel-Times reported in its February 17 edition that the creation of 20 unusually long allotments 100 years ago is behind council’s efforts to avoid a piecemeal approach to development and resultant poor planning outcomes.

As mentioned in that article, Inverloch’s Rohan White has submitted a 23-lot subdivision application for land he owns in Bena Road Korumburra.

Mr White is continuing with the application process, planning to respond to a request for further information.

“If my application doesn’t get up, I believe I’ve got a worthless piece of land,” he said, elaborating on the basis on which he bought it approximately a year ago, the land zoned Residential 1 without the DPO.

“I’ve submitted an application based on that,” he said, believing that while his application fits within the current planning scheme it likely prompted council’s consideration of imposing a DPO on the long lots.

While agreeing there is merit in what council is trying to do, he declared that if the Overlay idea comes to fruition, it will completely stop development of the long lot land.

He stressed that getting approval for a development plan prepared by all affected landowners jointly would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain the necessary reports and that would be at the expense of the owners.

 Mr White highlighted the impracticality of getting so many owners to agree to an array of requirements.

“The Department of Transport and Planning has got guidelines that you should not impose a DPO on multiple blocks,” he said, hopeful councillors’ decision to defer the matter will allow such matters to be taken into account.

Mr White wrote a letter to councillors ahead of the meeting expressing his concerns about the proposed DPO.

“The consequence of the DPO schedule would be that no permits could be granted for any development whatsoever until the affected owners jointly prepared a development plan to the satisfaction of South Gippsland Shire Council,” his letter stated.

He argues the DPO would result in a stalemate in which no progress could occur.

“While that stalemate continues, the affected owners’ homes will be significantly devalued and possibly unsaleable,” Mr White wrote.

The long lot owners Sentinel-Times chatted to at Wednesday’s council meeting all expressed concerns about the proposal to impose a DPO on their properties and the impact it would have.