A COUNCIL should abandon its push to redraw Harcourt's boundaries until it knows whether its proposed rules can protect perilously threatened species, an independent planning panel says.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The ruling is a blow to the Mount Alexander Shire's attempts to open new Harcourt land for development and plan for the future of the existing town area.
The council says 22 hectares of farmland outside town limits would give Harcourt 15 years worth of housing space.
It had hoped it had done enough work on biodiversity controls to satisfy an independent panel examining changes to the shire's planning scheme.
The panel instead sided with community groups alarmed by the council's plan to assess any threats to native plants and animals on a case-by-case basis, once developers put each plan forward.
It would be premature to sign off on any planning scheme amendments, the panel found.
"The implications of [the push for more housing is] too significant and wide reaching to delay to a later stage," it said.
Community groups had argued that would be too piecemeal to properly protect species including the brush-tailed phascogale, a secretive, squirrel-like marsupial at risk of local extinction.
Harcourt's progress association and Landcare group told the panel Harcourt's landscape was among the most fragmented in Australia.
Both wanted the council to greenlight a targeted study into the wildlife living in and around Harcourt.
The panel agreed.
"Habitat and wildlife corridors have not been adequately identified and are not adequately protected," it found.
The panel avoided a full critique of the council's work so far.
It commended the shire for some of the changes it had made to earlier drafts to bolster biodiversity and tree protections.
Those efforts simply were not enough, the panel said.
"A best practice approach to biodiversity planning would include a strategic biodiversity assessment," it found.
The council has 40 days to decide whether or not to adopt the panel's recommendations and councillors are expected to consider the matter at a public meeting in the new year.
Development services manager Georgia Hope said the council appreciated submissions made by members of the public.
"We also appreciate the Panel's assessment and acknowledge the recommendations for further work including the strategic biodiversity assessment and a commercial land demand assessment," she said.
Digital subscribers now have the convenience of faster news, right at your fingertips with the Bendigo Advertiser app. Click here to download.
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
