NEWS DESK
Ryman redraws plans for second permit bid Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au RYMAN Healthcare will submit a new planning permit application to Mornington Peninsula Shire Council for a retirement village and aged care facility at Mount Eliza. The new application will come just weeks after a knock-back from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for a much larger development. The New Zealand-based company contends VCAT “supported the use of the Kunyung Road site for that purpose” in its refusal and has resubmitted a smaller proposal with 13 fewer assisted living units and 77 fewer apartments. The number of care beds remains at 82. The development is expected to cost $85 million. In its 82-page determination released on Friday 2 July, VCAT confirmed Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s permit refusal and long-standing op-position to the project saying: “… the decision of the responsible authority is affirmed” and that the Ryman permit application would not be granted. “We accept that the proposal for a modern, integrated aged care and retirement facility would have the capacity to meet the future needs and expectations of an ageing population,” the
VCAT decision stated. “[However] this is not a preferred location for aged care, neither is there strong evidence of unmet localised demand.” But Ryman contends the VCAT ruling “supported the use of the 8.9ha site for retirement living and aged care, pointing to the clear community benefit [the] proposal would provide”. “The tribunal declined to issue a permit, citing concerns about the scale of some components of the proposed village, but gave clear guidance on what would be an appropriate outcome for the site,” the company said. Ryman’s development manager David Laing said the “new permit application … responds directly to VCAT’s guidance”. “We were really pleased the independent umpire ruled that retirement living and aged care is a suitable use for the site, and how much the community would benefit from having a Ryman village there,” Mr Laing told The News. “The recommendations VCAT has given have been incredibly helpful, so we’ve been able to take those on board and submit a new permit application that responds directly to it.” Ryman recently appealed to the Supreme Court to review how a point of planning law was interpreted by
VCAT, but Mr Laing said this would “have no bearing on how the new permit application will be considered”. “We obviously have a long-term interest in this site so just want to make sure that the correct policy and planning framework is applied to it, now and into the future,” he said. Former Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor Leigh Eustace, who contested the VCAT review, said the word “suitable” in the Ryman statement was “misleading”. “The tribunal said, ‘The use [retirement village and aged care in association with a place of worship] was permissible under current zoning’, but was very clear in its assessment that this site was not a preferred location and neither was there strong evidence of unmet localised demand,” he said. “The tribunal was clear … that the site was not in a preferred location, was outside the urban growth boundary, does not satisfy non-urban development planning and settlement policies, would impact on the inter-urban green break between Mount Eliza and Mornington, and would have a detrimental impact on the heritage, coastal, landscape and environmental aspects of the site.”
Green wedge zone would stop plan - MP MORNINGTON MP David Morris is pressuring the state government uses planning laws to stop the former Mount Eliza Business School site being developed as an aged care home and retirement “village”. Mr Morris called on Planning Minister Richard Wynne in state parliament last week to rezone the Ryman Healthcare site in Kunyung Road as green wedge. The move would prevent the company using the 8.9 hectare site for a retirement village and head off its latest attempt to win approval for a smaller development. “This government brags a lot about protecting the green wedge,” Mr Morris said. “We have had lots of words. It is about time those words were put into action, and we have seen precious little in the way of actions on this site.” Mr Morris said Ryman’s original proposal was for eight four-storey buildings, three three-storey buildings, 272 apartments, 115 nursing beds and
362 car spaces over 23,000 square metres “all outside the urban growth boundary”. Ryman says its new, reduced version is for 104 independent apartments, 35 assisted living suites and 82 care beds. Mr Morris said Mr Wynne had ignored his pleas over the past 17 months to “call in” the project saying in February last year that he “would look into it” and again, in June and October, stonewalling over pleas to act. “This rezoning [to green wedge] is supported by an overwhelming majority of the community,” Mr Morris said. “It is supported by an overwhelming majority of the new [Mornington Peninsula Shire] council as well. “Let us see if this minister is actually fair dinkum, if all the words that we have heard about protecting the green wedge—and we have seen zero actions in Mount Eliza—are fair dinkum or not. I do ask him to act and act as expeditiously as possible to finally protect this land.” Stephen Taylor
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Let’s celebrate: Norma Evans, Russell Jackson and Audrey Birch dressed in the Probus colours. Picture: Supplied
Milestone for Probus THE Combined Mornington Probus Club celebrated its 25th anniversary with lunch at Norwood House in June. After months of COVID-induced lockdowns and restrictions to the club’s activities, those who attended made up for lost time, treasurer Linda Ivanovski said, adding that a quarter of a century was a “long time to run a club with continued success and popularity”. “Obviously they are doing something right, as there are still six active foundation members,” she said. The club came about in the summer of 1995 when six people on a lengthy Probus Club waiting list approached Rotary and sought permission to start a new club. Details of the inaugural meeting at The Atrium Restaurant at Dromana were advertised locally and 50 people attended. Anecdotally, it was said half were from Red Hill looking to form a caravan club!
“The numbers were certainly there, and so the new club was launched,” Ms Ivanovski said. Initially, membership was limited to 85, but within 12 months this was increased to 125. Bus trips, dine outs, golf matches, book and garden groups, cards and mahjong groups, theatre and walking groups, were all well supported – often with a waiting list. “The club is still focused on social activities, fun and friendship. It is open to men and women who have retired or semi-retired,” Ms Ivanovski said. Meetings are held at Mornington Golf Club on the first Tuesday of each month. All activities are at cost, with no fund raising except for raffles. The Combined Mornington Probus Club monthly newsletter can be seen at probussouthpacific.org/microsites/ Morningtonc or call Carol 0422 849 177 or email The Secretary, at cmpcsecretary@gmail.com. Visitors welcome.
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PO Box 588, Hastings 3915 or email communityevents@mpnews.com.au Mornington News
10 August 2021
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