UGB slammed as untenable

By Bridget Brady
CASEY council officers have hit out at the State Government’s Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) investigation, claiming that further growth would end the municipality’s long association with the horticultural and agricultural industries.
Casey’s manager of strategic development Liam Hodgetts said land under investigation in Casey had a long farming history and UGB threatened those areas such as Clyde and Devon Meadows that were home to a “healthy market garden industry” and “very, very, fertile agricultural land”.
The News reported a fortnight back that council officers labelled the proposed UGB extension in Casey as “rushed” and “ill-conceived”.
They also said inadequate work had been done in preparing the Delivering Melbourne’s Newest Sustainable Communities (DMNSC) report.
They said Casey’s infrastructure was not up to scratch to cope with rapid growth, especially because no promise had been made to fund rail or road projects that would be required with the higher population.
The State Government is investigating an area of almost 3800 hectares in Casey to accommodate 18,000 homes for the proposed extension of the UGB to cater for Melbourne’s growing population. But council officers said only 3000 hectares of the proposed land was suitable for development as 800 hectares of it was constrained by quarries, flood-prone land or had biodiversity values.
In its submission on the UGB, the council said the land subject to biodiversity outcomes in Devon Meadows should be excluded from the proposed UGB until further investigation was made.
“Casey is faced with an unprecedented level of additional growth as proposed in the DMNSC. If not tempered and managed properly, it will threaten the sustainability of our ecological environments and liveability of our existing and future communities. In addition, this growth to a large extent will cut off forever that long association this city has had with horticultural and agricultural industries.”