Road plan impasse damages house sales

By SHAUN INGUANZO
SOME Ferntree Gully residents can not sell their homes due to a major road extension scheduled to cross through their properties.
The proposed extension to Dorset Road was resurrected at last week’s ordinary meeting of council.
At the meeting, council approved the lease of a council property along Kevin Avenue, Ferntree Gully.
The property and several others were initially bought by council to allow for an extension to Dorset Road.
This road would link its southern tip to Lysterfield Road, through Napoleon Road.
But Dobson Ward Councillor Karin Orpen said the extension had been in street directories “since the 1960s”with no progress made.
“It is getting beyond a joke,” she said.
“We want to see the Dorset Road extension happen.
“The project has been in the Melway since the 1960s, and it has been sitting there and doing nothing.”
Cr Orpen said the stagnate extension was still proposed which was causing problems for residents in its path.
One resident, she said, could not sell his home because buyers were reluctant to invest in a property which could, at any time, be bulldozed for the extension.
Knox CEO Graeme Emonson said the council had been lobbying VicRoads to complete the extension for a number of years.
“The project has been there a long time, “ Mr Emonson said.
“Even if we had some time frame that would be progress.”