Hopes for shops plan mood change

By Kath Gannaway
THE developer of the proposed Yarra Glen Shopping Complex is cautiously optimistic that the tide of opinion is changing towards support for the controversial development.
Chris O’Connor of Yarra Valley Land Development spoke with residents – concerned and otherwise – during an open day at Wombat Bend in Dixon’s Creek on Sunday, 6 November.
The five acre property is owned by Bill Molyneux and Sue Forrester, landscape designers for the 20 acre Yarra Glen Parkland which will be developed by the company once the shopping complex is approved.
More than 70 people visited the property which has been transformed from what Mr Molyneux described as a cow paddock into a parkland which provides habitat for more than 80 resident or migratory birds.
Mr O’Connor said they had expected about 50 people so were pleased with the level of interest shown by people and the effort made to gain an informed understanding of the project.
“At previous meetings people have come out with a full head of steam (in opposition to the plan) but today the feel has been different,” he said.
“Today people seem to be understanding the broader concept a lot better than previously.”
Features of Wombat Bend are a two-acre billabong with gentle slopes and mounds and indigenous vegetation.
While the scale of the Yarra Glen Parkland is four times larger than Wombat Bend, and the wetland component half as big again as the billabong, Mr Molyneux and Ms Forrester say the Yarra Glen development is being designed along the same lines.
“It’s not hard to envisage the wasteland of Yarra Glen becoming a macro-version of what you are presently seeing,” they wrote in an information sheet handed out on the day.
Mr O’Connor said any go-ahead for the shopping complex from the Shire of Yarra Ranges would include a guarantee that the wetlands would be built.
“Before one slab of concrete is poured all the wetlands will be finished.
“We are entering into a contract with the shire which says we don’t get a certificate of occupancy (on the shopping complex) until the wetlands is finished.”