VICTORIA'S planning umpire says an earthmoving company can build a depot on a property zoned for farming despite council policies that are supposed to funnel companies on to industrial land.
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The decision allows Slingo Earthmoving Pty Ltd to build a depot on Butchers Road Muckleford, after Mount Alexander Shire councillors knocked their application back.
The council had opposed Slingo's application over concerns about fragmenting agricultural land in an area zoned for farming.
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) member Michael Deidun disagreed in a ruling released on Monday.
He said the site Slingo wanted to use was located in one 2.5 hectare corner of the property, leaving the bulk of another 40 available for agricultural use.
Mr Deidun accepted Slingo's arguments that the depot would rise in an area with existing buildings and hardstand areas.
No-one could realistically expect to use such a site for any sort of soil-based farming use, he said.
"The use of a small portion of land for a non-agricultural land use is appropriate, and will have a minimal impact on the agricultural economy or the availability of productive agricultural land," Mr Deidun said.
He acknowledged councils could encourage industrial businesses to move onto land set aside specifically for such operations.
"However, this does not mean that industry cannot locate outside of these industrial estates," Mr Deidun said.
"Nor does it mean that alternative locations in different zones cannot also be found to be appropriate locations for a range of industrial uses and development."
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Slingo did not need the sort of infrastructure normally available at industrial sites and the Butchers Road land was linked to a road ideal for its uses, Mr Deidun said.
VCAT discounted a host of other council arguments including that the depot development would end up being too close to a nearby road.
Mr Deidun said the council's decision guidelines for farming zones did not demand the new development be set back from the road.
They focused instead on ways developers dealt with the visual impacts of anything they built, he said.
VCAT awarded Slingo a permit, subject to a host of conditions.
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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.
