By Violet Li
A planning permit hearing for the controversial $4.5m Hindu temple in the Mornington Peninsula Green Wedge has been postponed for seven months at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) after an amendment was submitted for assessment.
Non-profit multilingual Hindu organisation Melbourne Ayyappa Seva Sangam (MASS) is seeking approval for a place of worship on the corner of Dandenong-Hastings Road and South Boundary Road West in rural Pearcedale.
A Peninsula Green Wedge Protection Group has been established by the affected locals to oppose the proposed development and advocate the protection of Green Wedge land across Victoria since February 2022.
As Mornington Shire Council failed to decide within the statutory 60 days, the application was referred to VCAT.
The nine-day hearing was originally set to run from 19 to 29 February 2024.
MASS submitted the amended proposal in January and sought a postponement, which was given the green light by VCAT on a practice day hearing on 6 February.
The hearing will now be held from 2 to 12 September 2024.
Resident Craig Gobbi, who represented more than 80 locals at the VCAT hearing, stood against the postponement as the community had been aiming for the day for a long time.
He said it would potentially cost them some more money because of the legal preparation needed to pause and restart near the new date.
Mr Gobbi also had to cancel his annual leave, which he said was difficult to work out on such short notice.
He pointed out the other party missed the deadline for submitting an amended plan, which was 30 business days before the hearing.
“They’ve missed that deadline, so we believe that the only way they can get these plans accepted is if they push the date back as well,” he said.
A spokesperson for MASS said an extensive amount of work had been undertaken with a view to addressing key issues in dispute and hopefully narrowing the issues between the parties in the VCAT proceeding over recent months.
“As part of this process, an amended package of plans and associated documents has been circulated, as previously foreshadowed to the parties,” they said.
“We formed the view that it was in the interests of justice to allow the parties further time to review the amended package of plans and associated documents, and we sought an adjournment of the hearing to allow for that to occur.
“The statutory authorities all supported such an adjournment, however, the objector parties did not, and the tribunal has made a determination in this respect after receiving submissions from parties.”
The amended plan has sought to extend the operating hours, which were from 7am to 10am and 5pm to 8pm. This would be changed to 7am to 2pm and 4pm to 8pm.
A proposed temple lake would be relocated and the staircase areas from the temple to the lake would be reduced by nearly half to retain more native vegetation.
The height of the eating hall would be reduced from 12.288m to 10.794m and the colour of the roof would be changed from ‘copper gold colour’ to ‘colourbond terrain’ to ‘minimise any visual impacts’.
The colours of the temple and shrines roof would be changed from ‘copper gold colour’ to ‘colourbond manor red’ to minimise any visual impacts.
There would be a wider-angled crossover entrance from South Boundary Road.
The overall site coverage would be reduced from over 6900 square metres to over 6700 square metres.
Mr Gobbi said MASS “fudged about the edges” and made no real improvement.
“That does not change our objections,” he said.
The proposed temple attracted more than 300 formal objections since the submission of the planning application from December 2021 to April 2023.
Opponents say that the temple would impose unacceptable impacts on the environment, flora, and fauna, and produce unacceptable visual impacts, noise, and light pollution, traffic congestion and accidents, and fire risks.
The MASS spokesperson said as the matter was currently before the VCAT, it was not appropriate for them to comment on the merits of the case, or particular issues that might be in dispute.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council turned down the original proposal during a meeting on Tuesday 31 October to define its position for the VCAT proceedings. It has yet to assess the amended version.
