By CASEY NEILL
A CRANBOURNE West industrial area the size of 70 MCG ovals could soon be rezoned for housing.
The Cranbourne West Precinct Structure Plan zoned a 2.5 kilometre by 800 metre parcel along Westernport Highway as industrial land.
More than 730 people from the neighbouring 900 properties have signed a petition, asking for it to be rezoned residential, concerned about trucks and warehouses so close to their homes.
City of Casey councillor Garry Rowe and other council officials will meet Planning Minister Richard Wynne on 3 June to ask him to amend the zoning or allow the council to make the change.
“The Labor Party in the pre-election policies said that they would listen to the communities in relation to planning matters,” Cr Rowe said.
“I don’t think you can get a much clearer statement than 738 signatures on a petition.
“Those people bought in there without any existence of the industrial land. You’re talking about the biggest investment of their life.”
He said the council had identified alternative land appropriate for industrial zoning and existing commercial areas ready for development.
“We’re not going to lose jobs out of Casey,” he said.
“What we’re going to do is hopefully gain a new iconic suburb that will complement those subdivisions around it.”
Cr Rowe said sales in the abutting estates had declined since word about the neighbouring industrial zone spread, and that industrial sales had been unsuccessful.
He said large companies including Dulux, Woolworths and Bunnings had looked at the area and decided against moving in.
“Every one of them without fail said ‘we won’t go there – we don’t want the potential conflict with residential neighbours’,” he said.
Cr Rowe said some companies could not abide by EPA buffers due to the site’s narrow 800 metre width.
“The land was very poorly chosen,” he said.
“The people who chose it, the planners who put the lines on the map, had never visited Cranbourne in their lives.”
Cr Rowe said about 300 residents attended an information meeting about the zoning in February.
“Every one of them had no knowledge that that land was industrial and 80 per cent of them said they never would have bought there if it was industrial,” he said.
Ray Walker was at the meeting and has since become involved with Save Cranbourne West Action Group.
SCWAG has installed signs in the paddocks at Hall Road and Westernport Highway condemning industrial development and collected signatures on a petition.
Mr Walker moved to the Alarah Estate with his wife last October, and is concerned a neighbouring industrial development would devalue his property, result in large “eyesore warehouses” and trucks.
“We bought on the basis that what we looked at was going to be residential,” he said.
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