Industrial action
Land supply: Roger Bengtsson and Andrew Holman discussed industrial land supply at the Leongatha meeting on Wednesday with Nick Edwards of South Gippsland Shire Council (second from right) and Alex Aeschlimann.
THE Leongatha aerodrome and Koonwarra saleyards site could be future locations for industrial development.
Those sites, together with land north-west of Woorayl Golf Course, have been earmarked as sites for possible industrial use by South Gippsland Shire Council.
Council has started work on a study to review industrial land supply in Leongatha and held a meeting last Wednesday to discuss the plan with the public.
Council expects Leongatha to experience continued growth over the next 25 years and the study will consist of a detailed economic analysis and service infrastructure assessment.
Nick Edwards, council’s strategic planning officer, said the study looks at the long-term industrial land available in Leongatha.
“The purpose of the study is to identify existing and potential industrial land which may be suitable to accommodate Leongatha’s future needs,” he said.
“The public meeting was aimed at gathering as much information as possible from those who live in the area, and understand the issues we face.
“The main goal is essentially to gather information from the open discussion, to help create an open and honest appraisal of what options we have for the town, and what we can do to make things happen.”
Leongatha has three key industrial areas already identified by council, including the current main industrial estate, land south of the golf course and land south of the town centre.
Some of the questions asked at the meeting included what types of land does Leongatha need to retain and what types of industry does the town need to cater for in the future.
People who attended the meeting were asked to identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing land, and the opportunities and threats of future sites for industrial activity.
The information provided by the community, as well as members of the business community will be used to create the draft study.
“One of the things the study is trying to do is make it relatively open ended, so at the end of it, instead of saying we have got this area and this area, we can say we have got these areas to develop,” Mr Edwards said.
“This is what we are looking to do and these are some of the constraints of that region.
“That may involve, at the end of this, advice to council that we do need to re-zone certain areas and open areas up, or that we encourage development in one way or another.”
Paul Stampton, council’s manager of strategic planning and development, was keen to hear ideas from the community to help council improve the industrial land strategy.
“There is a problem; there is a lack of industrial land in Leongatha, so how do we solve that. There have been areas identified for the last five years,” Mr Stampton said.
“The area north of the golf course for example, somebody could have approached council and had it rezoned, but nobody has. What council needs to find out is why.”
The technical documentation for the study will be available on council’s website and it is expected to be before council in March 2013.
Mr Edwards said any changes to the project would be posted on council’s website.
“We are trying to keep the process as transparent as possible, and to make sure the information on the project is freely available,” he said.
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Posted by Jacob De Kunder on Oct 23 2012. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
