Telstra towers

By Tania Martin
FERNY Creek residents fear their town will turn into suburbia as Telstra prepares to sub-divide land surrounding its mobile tower.
The proposed sub-division at 4 One Tree Hill Road, Ferny Creek, is currently before the Shire of Yarra Ranges.
Resident and La Trobe MP Jason Wood fears the proposal will have a huge impact on the area.
Mr Wood said the land currently acts as a firebreak and residents fear that potential homeowners would be put at risk if residential housing was built on the site.
He said residents also feared high-density housing would be brought into the area.
Mr Wood said people living in Ferny Creek enjoy larger style block and would hate to see suburban type dwellings brought into town.
“We mean no disrespect to those living in suburbia but having smaller sized blocks up here will destroy the character of the hills,” he said.
“The last thing we want to see is suburbia plonked right on top of the Dandenong Ranges.”
However, shire spokesman James Martin said under the zoning of the land an average lot size was required to be two hectares in size (20,000 square metres).
Mr Martin said the site is six hectares or 60,000 square metres and subject to a permit it could be sub-divided.
He said the application has not been advertised yet, but the council was waiting on additional information from Telstra’s planning department before that could happen.
Telstra spokesman Paul Crisp said an application to sub-divide the land had been submitted to the council.
Mr Crisp said Telstra was looking to retain the site but wanted to split it into three sections.
“We are looking to make two lots available for potential housing and retain one for our mobile telephone facility,” he said.
Mr Crisp assured the Mail that the mobile tower and services would not be removed from the local area.