By Renee Wood
Yarra Ranges Councillors have approved to initiative community engagement for the purchase of the Healesville Green following years of uncertainty for the much-loved open space.
The site was leased by council from the State Government for many years until it was advised that the 1695m2 area at 13 Green Street was to be sold.
There was concern that the site would be sold commercially, losing the valued community asset which is used for community markets and a picnic area.
Now, council has been formally offered the opportunity by Victrack to purchase the land for half the commercial value at $675,000 plus GST, with the land valued last month at $1,350,000.00 (GST Exclusive).
Councillor Fiona McAllister said this has been a long journey but is still annoyed that ratepayers have to buy back the land.
“I feel happy that we’re at this point but still profoundly disappointed that we have to spend nearly $700,000 of community money to buy back something that never wasn’t theirs in the first place,” Cr McAllister said.
Community engagement will soon commence to discover what support there is for the purchase.
This follows previous surveys when the issue first arose in 2017, where 89.7 per cent of respondents supported Council purchasing the land at a price of $400k, while 67.2 per cent supported its purchase at market value at the time which was over $1.1 million.
Cr McAllister believes support for the purchasing of the site is still high.
“Certainly everyone I speak to, the answer is yes and really these what seem like inconsequential small bits of green beautiful open space that are loved by community are absolutely worth protecting,” she said.
The purchase of the land would come from Public Open Space Funding available to Ryrie Ward and during the process the land would be re-zoned to public open space.
“We would be able to make commitment back to Healesville community that it would be there’s and ours in perpetuity.
“So tonight is about saying yes we will continue down this path but we need to ask community again is that how you want the money to be spent.”
The decision was approved unanimously.
