Wedge off to VCAT

By CASEY NEILL
VCAT will again have the power to decide the Glenfern Green Wedge’s future.
The Upper Ferntree Gully land’s owners on 20 September lodged an appeal against Knox City Council’s decision to reject its application to split the two lots at 157-173 Glenfern Road into five.
The 77-acre property was last year the subject of a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) appeal after the council knocked back plans to divide it into seven lots.
VCAT upheld the council’s decision but said “we want to make it clear that we do not agree with any suggestion that this land should remain un-subdivided”.
So its four owners came up with a new plan they said was good for the community and the environment, and donated 10 acres of land along Ferny Creek to the council.
A council officer’s report recommended it be approved, but four of the eight Knox councillors deciding the application disagreed and rejected the permit.
Dobson Ward councillor Sue McMillan said the application would have been “quite a big win for the community”.
Her support prompted allegations of a conflict of interest after it emerged that one of the owners, Andrew Peterson, had provided her with a letter of support for her tilt at Liberal Party pre-selection for the federal seat of La Trobe, which she lost in June.
But Ms McMillan said a councillor should declare a conflict of interest if she or her immediate family sought to gain financial benefit from the decision to be made.
“Neither my family or myself have any financial interest in the property mentioned or would seek to gain anything at all from the property selling or not selling,” she said.
“I opposed this application the first time it came to council because, as VCAT did, I felt it was inappropriate.
“The subsequent application that came to council, in my view, ticked the previous VCAT requirements and also showed quite a bit of compromise.”
Ms McMillan said Mr Peterson provided the reference as a senior Upwey Football Club member, where her two boys played.
She said the pre-selection was also held before the application had been processed.
“I made my decision on what I felt was the best outcome for the community,” she said.
Mr Peterson told the Mail the owners had community support for the proposal.
“And we believe we have followed the instructions of VCAT from the last hearing,” he said.
Friends of Glenfern Green Wedge spokeswoman Johanna Selleck said the group would defend the Green Wedge at VCAT.
“We’ve had two wins at council and we’ve already won one at VCAT,” she said.
The group is still approaching people for pledges towards purchasing all or part of the land – a plan it would proceed with even if VCAT did give subdivision the green light.
“There’s a lot of community support behind us,” she said.