NEWS DESK
Cracks continue in Somers footpath fight Liz Bell liz@mpnews.com.au PLANS to build a footpath that have divided the peaceful village of Somers are becomingly increasingly hostile, with opponents launching their own legal challenge and accusing the council of taking sides. The long-running dispute has also put the Mornington Peninsula Shire’s special charge schemes under the spotlight, prompting an investigation that recommended abandoning one scheme, reviewing others and deferring nine. Shire CEO Carl Cowie last week described the issue as “vexed” and said dividing townships was not the intent of the scheme. As previously reported in The News, the Somers footpath scheme signalled the shire's intention to change the way costs are spread for all future special charge schemes. The cost of the proposed 5.2 km coastal footpath will be spread across 1245 Somers properties the council deems to receive a “special benefit” from the path, and not just the abutting properties. Angered by the move, the Somers Village Community Association (SVCA) is funding its own legal challenge at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) over the shire's plans to build the footpath and invoice almost the entire township. The association is also at loggerheads with another residents' group in the town – Somers Residents' Association – that supports the proposal. Outside the council meeting last Monday week, about 20 people gathered around No to Concrete
signs and vowed to force the council to answer questions about the cost and promotion of the scheme. However, their question time was cut short when Mr Cowie refused to read out all of them because they were lengthy and “repetitive”. He agreed to respond to all the concerns raised in writing, but rejected claims that “one side of the community was assisted and one side wasn't”. Mr Cowie offered to be “front and centre" of a conciliation meeting between the two ratepayer groups. Before the meeting, SVCA member Michelle Gregory said the council had not surveyed residents properly and that “about 600” residents were opposed the concrete footpath that was “not in keeping with the character” of the coastal town, and were still unhappy with a council compromise to provide a mix of exposed aggregate and concrete. The shire has given the Somers pathway project high priority and proposes an exposed aggregate shared pathway along Camp Hill Rd and the northern end of South Beach Rd with an exposed aggregate narrower meandering footpath along Parklands Av, Tasman Rd and the south end of South Beach Rd. According to council reports, more than 60 per cent of residents surveyed preferred an exposed aggregate surface – a less formal surface than concrete that is pram and wheelchair friendly – over the alternative granitic sand surface. “They (the council) won't use any information that doesn't support their case,” Ms Gregory said. When contacted by The News, president of the Somers Residents' Association, Dennis Aylward,
said two surveys had shown wide support for the footpath, and that “a lot of false information” was being spread. “I feel the council has been very fair; the council has put a proposal and they're [the SVCA] is not happy with that,” he said. David Gill, a former Mornington shire president, has accused the council of being misleading over a statement by its chief operating officer Alison Lieghton that help provided to the survey conducted by Somers Residents’ Association did not include paying for postage. A letter to the SCVA member Dr Chris Atmore by infrastructure strategy project manager Jeremy Grieve states: “Council provided the SRA with printed address labels ... and council also paid for the cost of the postage”. In a separate item after the questions from the public, council accepted a report on the progress of the special charge scheme that recommended revising the scheme to ensure the shire's “commitment to footpath implementation” is maintained. Councillors moved to adopt the report's recommendation to defer nine proposals in the “instigation” phase due to significant opposition revealed in a survey. Councillors also moved to accept the recommendation to abandon one scheme in McDowell St, Rosebud, and review four others. A budget surplus of $404,000 will be redirected towards footpath renewal projects in Babington Park, Hastings, Stony Point Rd, Bittern and Frankston-Flinders Rd, Somerville.
‘Secrecy’ claims Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au
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Western Port News
28 June 2016
CONSERVATION groups opposing redevelopment of Sorrento’s historic Continental Hotel claim they are being kept in the dark over plans to sell an adjoining council-owned car park to the developer. The 900 square metre block, at 23 Constitution Hill Rd, is crucial to the hotel’s redevelopment and impending sale. The proposed works include refurbishing the heritage building, adding 24 new rooms with a new mixed-use development to the south consisting of 16 residential units and a wellness centre, including gym, as well as a cafe on Constitution Hill Rd, landscaped rooftop terrace above the gym and cafe, three-storey residential building above wellness centre, public underground car park as well as private underground car park. Nepean Conservation Group president Ursula De Jong said the group and the Nepean Historical Society are concerned about a “lack of transparency” in the proposed sale of the land to a development consortium fronted by Julian Gerner. The land was bought by Mornington Peninsula Shire for a public car park in 1968 but has been included as a key part of the hotel’s multi-million dollar redevelopment. The 18 car parking spaces would be replaced by 25 spaces two storeys under the revamped building. The proposed sale of the block to the “prospective owner” of the hotel – follows the shire’s public notification process which ended on 6 June. A shire committee met last Thursday night to hear from objectors as well as Mr Gerner. The council expects to make a decision on 25 July. Ms De Jong said her group had “major issues” about how the car park land was to be sold. “The whole process is of concern to us,” she said. “There is no transparency in the process.” She said the group was told the land would be sold to the hotel’s prospective owners without
public tendering “even if someone else offered more money”. The price being mentioned is $1.8 million plus GST. “We all agree the hotel needs restoration, but the issue that the developer is not addressing is that the car park is public land. And there is no guarantee that the parking spaces will be available to the public when the land is in private hands.” Nepean Conservation Group cites a conflict of interest “when the shire, intending to sell its land or having sold its land to the developer, then has to make a decision on the proposed development, by the same developer”. It opposes the current proposal “as an overdevelopment of the site, which does not respect the heritage significance of the Continental Hotel, its iconic status in the township of Sorrento, nor the immediate historic precinct”.