Cranbourne South residential estate Botanic Ridge is
By Glen Atwell
THE controversial decision to make a residential development in the heart of Cranbourne South a suburb in its own right has literally divided the community.
Botanic Ridge is set to become the newest address in the City of Casey after councillors voted to publicise its intention to create the new suburb at a recent council meeting.
But the decision has outraged a number of proud Cranbourne residents, who believe the development community has deliberately tried to distance itself from the Cranbourne name.
Councillor Steve Beardon strongly opposed the creation of the suburb, and encouraged Cranbourne residents to voice their concern to the City of Casey.
“I do not support throwing away the Cranbourne name for a bunch of blow-in residents,” he said.
“These people purchased their properties under the name of Cranbourne South and now they want to change it. It’s disrespectful to the loyal residents of Cranbourne.”
Cr Beardon was ashamed of the council’s decision to carry the recommendations put forward by Casey’s planning and development services.
“We heritage list trees, but councillors vote to throw away our name, a name that represents all we are and all we stand for,” he said.
“Cranbourne is a proud suburb.”
Councillor Colin Butler supported the move to officially recognise Botanic Ridge, which neighbours the Royal Botanic Gardens, because he believed that was the name it had always been known by.
“From a council perspective, officially recognising this new suburb as Botanic Ridge makes perfect sense,” he said.
“So far we have received overwhelming support from local residents, who have identified the numerous social and economic benefits that Cranbourne will gain from diversifying its population base resulting from the suburb name change,” Cr Butler said.
But Cr Beardon said the creation of Cranbourne South was designed to achieve those social and economic benefits.
“Properties in Botanic Ridge were selling extremely well before there was any proposal to create a new suburb,” he said.
“Council spent considerable time developing the Botanic Ridge estate, and it should retain the Cranbourne name.”
Long-time Cranbourne resident John Foley said the proposed name change was an attempt at class distinction.
“What are these people ashamed of?” he asked.
“Cranbourne is certainly not struggle city. We have world-class racing facilities, Casey Fields and we’ll soon have access to a state-of-the-art aquatic centre.”
Mr Foley said the precedent set by City of Casey was like dangling a carrot in front of potential developers.
“I guess it means that any developer will think they can roll in and have a new suburb,” he said.
Botanic Ridge development manager Joe Cassera said the suburb name change was a positive step forward for the area.
“The Botanic Ridge development vision is to create an urban environment which complements the Royal Botanical Gardens, and the creation of this new suburb name is about formalising the link between the gardens and the development area,” he said.
A City of Casey spokeswoman said that in Casey’s history, only two similar suburb changes had taken place, when part of Lyndhurst became Lynbrook and the southern part of Lysterfield became known as Lysterfield South.
