By Victoria Stone-Meadows
The Amstel Golf Club has won support from the City of Casey to get the Ranfurlie Golf Course included in the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB).
The inclusion of the course in the UGB would open the way for future development of the site for housing or other urban growth purposes.
Currently, the golf course site is scheduled as inside a green wedge zone which makes any future subdividing and selling of the course difficult despite the surrounding land being part of the UGB.
The Amstel Golf Club has been working to have the course included in the UGB since the State Government’s Plan Melbourne documents were updated in 2012.
At a council meeting on Tuesday 20 June, council passed a vote to support the inclusion of the golf course in the UGB.
Council’s manager City Planning Nicola Ward said the inclusion of the golf course site in the UGB would allow council to plan for new projects to benefit the growing community of the Cranbourne area.
“The exclusion of this site from the UGB constitutes an anomaly with land surrounding it designated for urban purposes,” she said.
“Its inclusion would provide an opportunity for the land to be redeveloped for urban purposes.”
“Should the site be included in the UGB, there are a number of considerations that would need to be sufficiently addressed, including the provision of additional infrastructure to support this new resident population.”
However, general manager of the Amstel Golf Club Peter Butler said the Ranfurlie Golf Course wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“The club has no intention to sell Ranfurlie and what we are doing here is planning for the future,” he said.
“We currently have housing down one side and the dual carriage way Bullarto Road on the other and by being included in the UGB, in 10 or 15 years when urban growth gets very close to the course, the board then might want to sell.”
“We are only about planning for future and laying the foundations for moves a future board of directors may want to make.”
In a letter to council from March this year, Mr Butler urged council to support the inclusion of Ranfurlie in the UGB.
Mr Butler outlined in his letter than any profits the club made from the sale of the land occupied by the Ranfurlie Golf Course would be used to establish a new golf course near the current site.
The Amstel Golf Club will make a submission to the Victorian Planning Authority (VPA) to include the Ranfurlie Golf Course site in the UGB, and the VPA will consider if the submission has merit.
