Please go DIRECTLY to the original Bayside Leader article and leave a Comment THERE…
…the more Comments they get, the more interested they will be in writing more HGW articles.
It can be ‘short & sweet’ or a more detailed Comment…
Source Link to Bayside Leader article: HAVE YOUR SAY: Highett Landscape to Change
The article is reproduced below:
BY JON ANDREWS
6 September 2011
A PLAN for Bayside’s biggest block of land is getting closer, with a decision about the CSIRO site expected before Christmas.
But the CSIRO says a sale is far more likely to be early next year than later this one.
Bayside Council has held discussions about community aspirations for the huge Highett block, used as a research centre.
The area, served by Bay Rd, could hold hundreds of houses, some shops and parkland.
CSIRO property resources manager Ross Stevens said environmental and heritage assessments were still being considered.
“We’re still doing investigations and anticipate they will be finished towards the end of the year,” Mr Stevens said.
“We will then be in a position to move towards a sale in early 2012.”
Mayor Alex del Porto said a large section of the 9ha should be saved because of its precious vegetation.
“It is council’s view that three to four hectares of the site can be protected and restored along with providing open space for passive recreation,” Cr del Porto said.
“Council is seeking the remainder of the site to be developed for residential purposes in a manner that complements the Highett Activity Centre consistent with the adopted Highett Structure Plan.”
An area on the south of the site known as the Highett Grassy Woodlands is considered valuable because of its rare flora, including yellow box gum trees and other precious plants.
Source Link to Bayside Leader: HAVE YOUR SAY: Highett Landscape to Change
Please go to this Bayside Leader article and leave a Comment…
…the more Comments they get, the more interested they will be in writing more HGW articles.
If heritage and scientific assessments are still being considered, I wonder what angle the economists are considering? We know CSIRO has had an assessment some time ago-what is it that they do not like? Giving up precious hectares for future generations? A pity the economists are not better at lobbying the government for real and on-going funding without having to raid the family piggy bank.
It is essential to have at least the grassy woodland reserved permanently – for the sake of the important vegetation and as public open space, of which the Highett area has little.
The Highett grassy woodland area really needs to be preserved – once these open spaces are gone it is permanent, and there is precious little of it left as it is. I’m sure that many people in the Bayside and surrounding districts would agree with me.
This is exactly what the Fulton Landscaping people told us when we (Middleton St East side) told us when we protested against them. They said there were plans to extend Reserve Rd to Highett Rd immediately behind our houses. I am shaking with fear. There is too much to lose, not only from the heritage perspective of HGW but from the personal possibility of family homes being sandwiched between two major roads or even being forcibly acquired to make way for such a horrendous development.
Hopefully the CSIRO will understand the heritage value of the remnant vegetation on this site and the enormous need for passive recreation space in the area specially in view of the huge number of dwellings proposed and currently under construction nearby and perhaps on the northern end of the CSIRO land and make the 3 to 4 hectares available to the people.