Permit delays rile Villagers

By Sarah Schwager
AN ELDERLY Devon Meadows man who has been waiting eight years for a planning application to be approved may never get to see his intended retirement money.
Ted Cooper, 80, applied to Casey Council in 1998 to have his four-acre block on Shaw Road in Junction Village subdivided into four one-acre lots.
He is still waiting and has been told it will most likely take another 18 months.
In recent weeks Mr Cooper has been in and out of the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg due to complications including infections after surgery.
Mr Cooper felt his applications to subdivide the property, which lies in the Botanic Ridge development area surrounding the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, had been continually dismissed by the council.
“We’ve tried everything and we can’t get anywhere,” Mr Cooper said.
But Casey manager planning Bob Baggio said the council had had to wait to approve an amendment to rezone the land to make it residential.
Previously the land was in a rural zone.
Mr Baggio said the council exhibited Amendment C39 to the Casey Planning Scheme in 2002.
However, shortly afterwards, the State Government brought in the Urban Growth Boundary, with the Botanic Ridge land falling just outside the boundary.
The land has now been included in the boundary, which means the council can reactivate the amendment.
Mr Baggio could not say how long that would take but expected it to be at least six months.
Mr Cooper is not the only resident in the area waiting on council approval for planning applications.
Owners of more than 20 properties in the Botanic Ridge have had problems getting their land subdivided, houses built or renovated, or even rotten trees pulled out.
Anne Blackburn, who owns one of the four lots on Shaw Road, applied to build a house on her block last November.
“My biggest gripe is the time it has taken to get a permit for the house,” Ms Blackburn said.
Ms Blackburn bought the property three years ago and planned to use her retirement money to build a house.
She said since then she had done everything to make the property suitable for building on, including planting 16 native trees along the fence bordering the view from the Botanic Gardens.
The four Shaw Road properties are already fully serviced with power, water, sewerage and gas, and have access to a fully constructed road.
Therefore they do not require any planning or capital works expenditure by the City of Casey or other service providers.
Chris Highland, owner of another Shaw Road lot, has also been waiting for approval to build a house on his 1.5-acre property.
He had been living in a small portable home while waiting for approval, with the house to be built in the same spot as the portable, but is now staying in Berwick.
“We’re not trying to do anything illegal. We’re just residents, not developers,” Mr Highland said.
“I know at the end of the day they are going to let me build but why do they have to be so difficult?”
Owners of the fourth lot, Tina and Barry Fox, said time was on their side in terms of waiting for their application to be processed, but they were worried about people like Mr Cooper.
“We’ve got the services. Ideally it would go ahead now,” Mrs Fox said.
“It is going to happen but that may be too late for some people.”