By Violet Li<\/p>\n
Casey Council and developer Browns Property Group faced probing questions from residents over a plan to build more than 1000 homes on the Cranbourne Golf Course during two objector-only information sessions held last Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n
Despite multiple requests, Star News was not permitted to attend the meetings, being told they were not open to the general public, including the media.<\/p>\n
Unless one of the three councillors who attended the meetings \u201ccalls it in,\u201d the decision on the site at 750 Glasscocks Road will be made under delegation by council officers and will not be debated at a public council meeting. This was reiterated in both sessions, attendees have told Star News. <\/p>\n
According to the invitation emails sent to the objectors, the purpose of the meeting was to provide a forum for all parties to explain their views relating to the application, an opportunity to \u201cclarify grounds for objection, ask questions relating to the application, and be provided with information on the next steps of the assessment and decision-making process\u201d.<\/p>\n
About 11 objectors attended the first meeting on the night of Thursday 20 November, while three attended the second on the morning of Friday 21 November.<\/p>\n
Both sessions ran for just one hour and followed a similar structure: a brief five-minute presentation from Browns Property Group, followed by five themed discussions on infrastructure and traffic, environmental concerns, community and social impacts, and design and development issues.<\/p>\n
Councillors Kim Ross, Gary Rowe and Lynette Pereira attended the first session, and Cr Ross and Cr Rowe also attended the second one.<\/p>\n
One moment that stood out in the memories of the first-session participants was when one of the councillors tried to ask a question, and the councillor was told by a council officer that they were there to listen and observe, not ask questions.<\/p>\n
Star News previously wrote a story on residents\u2019 concerns about the permit application, including the traffic congestion, the loss of green space, including about 4000 trees, the capacity of local infrastructure (schools, kindergartens, GPs), and the risk from the nearby landfill (odour and leachate), and many of the concerns were discussed again during the meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (Browns Group) tried to clarify what they\u2019ve done and why they\u2019ve done some of those points in their development plans,\u201d one attendant said, who preferred to be anonymous due to private reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we talked about the traffic and everything, they were like, well, that\u2019s a Casey problem. That\u2019s a State Government problem.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Their point is) we\u2019re not here to deal with infrastructure. We\u2019re just here to develop the land, and we asked about the schools, and they said, well, that\u2019s the same Government problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
The attendant said their take was that none of the concerns from the objectors\u2019 side were meaningfully addressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just for them to tell us what they wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we reasserted that we\u2019re concerned about the traffic and not enough green space, they were like, we\u2019ve followed the planning principles. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s our research. They will try and explain to us why they made these decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the attendant admitted that they did feel better after the meeting because they got to talk about their concerns, and the developer got to explain what they were doing, despite nothing being seemingly resolved at the end of the meeting.<\/p>\n
Another objector, who had a background in building estates, said he was \u201cperfectly happy\u201d after going to the meeting. He had environmental and engineering concerns before the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of all the developers I\u2019ve come across, Brown\u2019s stands out far and above the other. Now you have to trust these developers to a certain extent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot more single mothers. They have to get a house, and they can only afford this. They can\u2019t afford a normal block of land. I\u2019m starting to understand that now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always had that thing, they put all these blocks and lots into a development because it means more money for the council and more money for the developer, and to a certain extent, that\u2019s true, but that\u2019s not entirely true. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s market-driven and society-driven. People don\u2019t understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Star News also talked to other objectors. Some of their concerns were still not resolved, and they left with more questions than answers. Some said the meetings did clarify some concerns for them.<\/p>\n
When it comes to the next step for the permit application, they were told at the meeting that a strict statutory 60-day decision deadline fell on some day before Christmas, meaning a decision would be expected the week before Christmas. <\/p>\n
Objectors were told that they had already paused the clock earlier in the year, and given that there was now sufficient information, they could not legally pause it again.<\/p>\n
If the Council fails to decide within the statutory deadline, Browns Property Group can bring the permit to the VCAT.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis permit should be decided by our councillors, not by VCAT,\u201d Jill Nambu, one of the objectors, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what they were elected to do. They\u2019re elected to represent their constituents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the councillors needed to make a decision based on the law, but also the community\u2019s concerns, their requests, and their needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least one of them should be calling it in and really putting the people\u2019s voice in. I mean, this is a democracy. They have the right to call it in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Nambu is not satisfied with the developer\u2019s answers to the community\u2019s concerns at the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be conversations from Brown, from the council with the State. We can\u2019t just say, it\u2019s the State\u2019s responsibility, but not actually have conversations with them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that we don\u2019t have enough homes. Don\u2019t get me wrong. But people shouldn\u2019t have to suffer because of poor planning. How many times do we get people complaining about the roads around here because they are not having conversations?\u201d<\/p>\n
Star News contacted Browns Property Group to inquire if they had submitted or planned to submit any amendments after the objector meetings. They didn\u2019t get back before the deadline.<\/p>\n
Star News contacted Casey Council to inquire about the specific date for the permit outcome, and if any councillors indicated that they were going to \u201ccall it in\u201d at the December meeting.<\/p>\n
Casey Council has advised that they cannot comment or foreshadow what decision the councillors will make regarding the delegations for this application.<\/p>\n
A City of Casey spokesperson said that council officers were assessing the planning permit application. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe acknowledge the high community interest in this application, and to ensure as many community members could make a submission to the process as possible, Council extended the public notice period from the statutory 14 days to a 28-day period. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Objector Meeting provided an additional opportunity for community members to express their concerns with the application. No decisions were made at this meeting; it was an additional opportunity to hear directly from community members.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Violet Li Casey Council and developer Browns Property Group faced probing questions from residents over a plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-309513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}