[dropcap style=”font-size: 16px; color: #00000;”]Milk processing plant location needs forward thinking:[/dropcap]
 

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] I [/dropcap] live only 400 meters from the proposed milk drying plant and proposed freezer storage facility behind Midfield Meats, which if developed will be the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

I have received an offer from a local real estate agency stating that my house would be devalued due to the proposed development and they had a buyer who’d be interested in purchasing my house to support the workers at the plant.

Warrnambool needs entrepreneurial businessmen like Colin McKenna, owner of Midfields Meats and the rendering plant. They provide investment and employment which contribute to the growth and development of this wonderful city.

Objections to the current proposals generally support the development of these industries in Warrnambool, but argue that the current site is too close to residential zones and therefore these new plants should be sited elsewhere.

The expansion of inappropriately sited industries and the proposed introduction of heavy industry so close to residential zones, will negatively impact on the health and wellbeing of residents and should not be considered – a disaster in the making.

There needs to be a buffer zone, away from any residential areas and away from our pristine coastline. When Midfield Meats and the rendering plant were developed, they were out of town.

But things have changed, the city has grown and will continue to grow into the future. Warrnambool is a great city with many areas of natural beauty and such industrialisation so close to the city and the coastline is out of step and totally inappropriate.

Midfield Meats is less than 3k to the Warrnambool city centre Post Office and even less to the Merri River and the ocean. The rendering plant is right ‘on’ the ocean and ‘in’ Kelly’s Swamp – ridiculous.

The three industries of Midfield Meats, the milk processing plant and the rendering plant need to be placed out of town and on one large industrial site. They could be constructed using environmental best practice principals and become an industry leader for the 21^st century.

Here is an opportunity to demonstrate a forward thinking vision, to create an industry model for the future, able to expand to meet the growing demands of domestic and international trade in the 21^st century. Financial assistance could be sought from Federal, State and local Government and the new international investors in our dairy industry.

The issue here is about industrial development that is in sympathy with the development of healthy communities.

When turning into McMeekin Road from Koroit Street, the city side is to the left and the light industrial estate is to the right. Midfield Meats currently sits on the city side and with the push for further expansion, perhaps it is time to draw a line in the sand and have the city side rezoned as residential and small business. All industry to the left or further out as appropriate and the Warrnambool City Council develop a new “heavy” industrial site.

Bowing to forceful economic proposals is not the way forward.

Selling and rezoning land and making promises without proper community consultation is not sympathetic to the needs of either the community or the environment. It is imperative that Council, politicians and local entrepreneurs be visionaries, build for the future and listen and respond to community concerns.

Francis van der Mark, Warrnambool

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OPINION – Carol Altmann

* A warning, this piece includes a graphic photo from the Levys Point rendering plant which some readers may find distressing.

Next year is shaping up as a defining one for the long-term future of Warrnambool and its residents, with three major projects that will change the landscape for decades to come.

• The first is the proposed 34m-high milk processing plant and an adjacent 29m-tall cold store that will both operate 24-hours a day, seven-days a week in Scott St, Merrivale.
• The second is a $3 million upgrade of the rendering plant at Levys Point that sits adjacent to the Merri River wetlands and the Warrnambool-Port Fairy rail trail.
• And the third is a nine-level apartment and penthouse complex to replace the former Madden’s building on a prime site overlooking Merri/Gilles streets.

All three projects are linked to one of the most successful businesses and businessmen in Warrnambool: Midfield Meats and its founder, Colin McKenna, who, understandably, are always looking for opportunities to expand and build upon their already multi-million dollar status. There is nothing wrong with that.

The problem, however, is that the consequences of such expansions on the rest of us – the little people and our city – can be significant and irreversible.

As such, we have one chance to get it right, lest it all go so horribly wrong, and this is where we look to our civic leaders to act in the best interests of us all.

So far, however, most of the Warrnambool City Council and its elected members have appeared reluctant to rigorously press, probe and challenge the merits of all three projects put forward by one of Warrnambool’s most high-profile businesses, as if any “progress” is good progress.

Let’s start with the rendering plant at Levy’s Point, which was built in the 1970s at a time when the area was considered way out of town and nobody gave much thought to the environment.

In 2014, both of these things have changed dramatically.

We now care that a rendering plant is right next door to a beautiful wetlands and not only is it no longer isolated, but the Port Fairy-Warrnambool rail trail passes by its front door.

I had been warned that if you cycled along the rail trail, you could be confronted with the clawing stench and shocking sight of dismembered animal parts pushed into a meat mountain, but I didn’t quite believe it.

But yes, it is true and I can’t begin to imagine what tourists must think when they stumble across this sensory assault. The residents of nearby Merrivale, of course, have been living with the stench for years.

It is not the fault of Midfield Meats that they have inherited this location, but its application for new works at the plant provides a rare opportunity to strongly argue that it is time to relocate.

This is exactly what the Merri Wetlands Protection Group – a five member, volunteer based group – will argue when it presents its case to VCAT in April.

The majority of our councillors – Crs Ermacora, Hulin, Sycopoulis and Kelson – actually agree with them, but the final position taken when two of these councillors were absent saw the vote of Crs Neoh, Gaston and Askew turn opposition into support. Go figure.

Then there is the proposed milk processing plant and cold store that will tower over the inner industrial estate and create a whole new set of issues for the people of Merrivale while adding a 10-storey and a nine-storey shed to the skyline.

In a complex set of transactions involving state and local government, the council has bent over backwards to accommodate the Midfield plans by selling them part of its depot land, yet CEO Bruce Anson said recently he had no idea the site was intended for a milk powder factory until shortly before settlement.

So again it has been left to the little people, like the We Love Merrivale group, to stand up and challenge the idea of a factory being built so close to their homes, because regardless of the assurances given about dust emissions and noise, they are the ones who will have to live with it in their backyard.

And lastly we have the nine-storey Warrnambool Apartments project that will dominate the end of Merri and Gilles streets.

This complex will replace a 1940s art-deco building that had been recommended for heritage protection, but was rejected by the council, allowing its recent demolition. (Ironically, the council is now seeking a heritage overlay on the house next door, which was built at the same time, by the same builder.)

Irrespective of what you think of the design – personally, I think it is more suited to Melbourne’s Docklands than Gilles St – the sheer height of the building at almost 30 metres is at odds with the council’s planning guidelines for the area that say buildings should be no more than 7.5m (in one section) and 10.5m (in another).

As Julie Eagles from the Warrnambool Planning and Heritage Group said so succinctly at a recent on-site briefing for objectors, “given the council’s own guidelines, what are we even doing here?”

What, indeed.

2015 is shaping up as a defining year for both our city, its leadership and grassroots activism – watch this space.

OPINION

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] B [/dropcap]luestone can reveal what should be the worst kept secret in Warrnambool: the developer behind the $20 million, nine-storey “Sandilands” apartment complex is Colin McKenna, from the Midfield Meats empire.

Mr McKenna is listed as the current director of Baybern Developments, a company set up in February this year, which plans to build what will be the biggest apartment complex of its kind for Warrnambool on a prime spot at 1A Liebig St, on the corner of Gilles and Merri streets.

The plan involves demolishing the old Sandilands hotel, and building a nine-storey complex that will include 51 mixed-use apartments, penthouses and two-floors of retail space, overlooking sweeping views of Lake Pertobe and Lady Bay.

Yet for all of the animated discussion that is being generated by the project, there has been a weird shroud of secrecy over who is behind the plans…until now.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] A [/dropcap] glowing editorial in the local newspaper today about the project, urged locals to embrace the “exciting and welcome new vision” and declared: “there would have to be excellent reasons for opposing a development such as this”.

And then there was this strange line: “We’re told that a consortium that includes a western Victorian developer is behind the plan, but it doesn’t really matter who is building it or developing it as long as it gets done.”

“We’re told”? “It doesn’t really matter”? “…as long as it gets done”?

The paper’s first story on the project was equally obtuse: “Baybern has been described by Tract (Consultants) as “western Victorian developers” which The Standard understands includes a Warrnambool entity.”

Surely the first question any eager newspaper wants to know is who is behind such a bold proposal, especially when that someone turns out to be one of, if not the, wealthiest local businessmen in town and an influential figure in our community.

And surely it is even more relevant to the wider public interest given Mr McKenna’s company, Midfield Meats, is behind the other most significant development in Warrnambool in the last five years with its proposed 10-storey milk processing plant in Merrivale.

That project, like the Sandilands development, has its own critics, particularly among the Merrivale community who don’t want to see even further industrialisation of their tiny patch.

So the question is not why the local newspaper didn’t find out who was behind Sandilands – of course they know – but why they are choosing not to report it?

We could only ponder, as we researched Baybern Developments ourselves.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]he intrigue only adds to what is a long and fascinating story around the site.

Baybern Developments purchased the site earlier this year from Percy Properties, a company representing a cluster of lawyers from Madden’s law firm, including former mayor James Nicol, Brendan Pendergast, John Madden and Stan Carroll, who occupied the building for many years after the Sandilands guest house closed. (The owner of Sandilands, Katherine Plant, sold the property to her solicitor, Dan Madden, after she retired).

Despite its name, Percy Properties was never interested in property development at 1A Liebig St. Its intention, first flagged in 2006, was to sell the site free of encumbrances to somebody else who would build a modern accommodation complex.

Permits to knock the building down, however, were stymied by an independent heritage assessment which found that the 1940s, red brick, art-deco building that was built by local builder Ern Harris, had social and local historical significance.

Not to be deterred, Percy Properties fought on, and the Warrnambool City Council finally voted 4/3 in February 2009 to disregard the heritage report and allow demolition. (Those who wanted the building saved, by the way, were Crs Michael Neoh, Jacinta Ermacora and John Harris, while Crs Rob Askew, Peter Hulin, Andrew Fawcett and Jennifer Lowe voted against it.)

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] I [/dropcap]t is such a familiar story for Warrnambool: when it comes to development, it is either all or nothing.

There is rarely room for creative compromises, like those seen in cities around the world, where heritage (ie. irreplaceable, character-filled buildings) and modern architecture combine.

And if you seek such a compromise, you are howled down as being “anti-progress”.

Local architects were not involved in the design of the Baybern proposal, in favour of Melbourne firm ClarkeHopkinsClarke, but there are already promises of 80-100 local jobs during its construction. (As an aside, there were 200 jobs promised in the Midfield Meats milk processing and cold storage project, but it has since been confirmed the milk factory will create only around 12.)

There is no doubt 1A Liebig St is ripe for something very special, but razing yet another piece of local history and replacing it with what Warrnambool Planning and Heritage Group president Julie Eagles so perfectly described as “plonk” archictecture – architecture that can go anywhere – does not seem very special at all.

The public have until October 29 to make comment on the proposal (Planning Permit #PP2014-0162), after which it will return to the council for consideration.

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