FOLLOWING Wednesday’s council meeting at the Macedon Ranges Shire Council (MRSC), some council members were left angry over the current Clarkefield development situation.
The planning scheme includes the construction of approximately 2300 new dwellings, including affordable and key worker housing, supported by coordinated infrastructure delivery.
The minister for planning now has the decision to either prepare, adopt and approve a draft amendment to the Macedon Ranges Planning Scheme for Clarkefield.
But the MRSC isn’t exactly on board with the situation, explaining that Clarkfield is not the area for major growth and it won’t suit the Macedon Ranges.
“Council has planned for growth across the shire and will accommodate well planned growth in towns identified through councils settlements strategy and that’s not Clarkefield.” Director or Planning and Environment Rebecca Stockfeld said.
Councillor Daniel Young was passionate about the development, saying it’s not right for the growth of the shire.
“You cannot change the character of the Macedon ranges because you’ve got a housing crisis problem and make it our problem in the process,” he said.
“We don’t want to become Melbourne, we don’t want urban sprawl, we don’t to be encroached on, we just want to be left alone and to develop normally and naturally like we have for the last however many years, so hand off.”
Councillor Jennifer Anderson agreed with Cr Youngs comments saying we are not a major growth zone.
“We are not a growth zone, we are not one of the Melton’s, the Kardinia’s, the Casey’s even the Hume’s, we are not a growth zone.”
“It (Clarkefield) hasn’t got the community infrastructure, the water, the waste water, the schools, the ovals, it hasn’t got the facilities for 6000 people which is 10 times what it is expected to have in our settlement strategy,”
The current infrastructure at Clarkefield includes a train station which can fit up to four carriages, a pub which is closed down and a fire station.
Yet the state government highlights the area as a potential to build new facilities including a town centre and thousands of homes alongside it.
“To have one person making a decision on documents that have come from a developer that are poorly formulated, is just not right,” Cr Anderson said.
The council stands in unity agreeing that the project needs to be looked at by at least an independent planning panel before the Minister for Planning could agree with it.
The minister is set to make a decision in August, later this year.
