"Farm land is not sacred anymore," said Bungaree farmer Michael Frawley. "That right," he added, "has been taken away from farmers."
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The comments followed a decision by City of Ballarat council on Wednesday to approve the development of a large two-storey hotel in Warrenheip on land zoned farming.
To anyone unfamiliar with the particulars of this development, Mr Frawley's words might - at first blush - be dismissed for their hint of 'NIMBYism', a term of opprobrium meaning 'not in my backyard'. But in reality, they delineate with precision the failings of modern urban planning.
From its inception in the late nineteenth century, planning derived its intellectual force from the fundamental premise it holds out - namely, that the future is, at least to some extent, predictable.
By design, planning was supposed to guard against the consequences of uncongenial or substandard developments, such as over-crowding, environmental degradation or congestion, and it did so - to all appearances - by controlling land use through zoning.
And herein, of course, lies Mr Frawley's complaint: how is it that land zoned farming can validly accommodate the construction of a two-storey, 119 room residential hotel?
The answer is to be found in a recent amendment to the definition of "farming zone" in the planning scheme, which widened its ambit to include 'residential hotel' among the permitted uses of farming land.
Mr Frawley's wife, Jo Frawley, said the amendment, in her view, was intended to focus not on commercial hotels but on the rising popularity of 'farm stay' accommodation, where tourists can visit a farm to get a taste of agricultural life.
"The clause has been twisted and manipulated [by council] for this particular [hotel] development," Ms Frawley said. "If they really wanted it to go ahead, they should have asked for it to be rezoned."
It was a sentiment echoed by Warrenheip resident Kirrily Liddle, who told council she was at a loss to explain how a development that lacks certainty around sewerage and water, as well as its implications for traffic safety and biosecurity, could be recommended for approval.
"Commercial buildings like these don't seem to need to provide the same information we'd need to provide to build a house on farm zone," she said, labouring the double standard.
They're views which speak to the looseness of certain provisions within the planning scheme, and hence the unpredictability of modern planning. And it's against this backdrop that the task of councillors, as the relevant planning authority, can be reduced to little more than a box-ticking exercise.
"Like it or not, [the application] conforms with the current rules in the planning scheme," said Cr Des Hudson, speaking in favour of the development. "We need to take the advice of our planners and the professional advice they give us is that the applicant has done what they're required to do."
The proposed hotel development, adjacent to the Western Highway at 63 Mahers Road, had prompted various concerns amongst residents, primarily centred on potential contamination in neighbouring farms and the inability of existing rural road infrastructure to safely accommodate higher volumes of traffic, with the latter extending to the consequences carried by congestion at the notoriously dangerous Old Melbourne Road and Brewery Tap Road highway intersection.
Although - thanks to an amendment moved by Cr Hudson - the developer is now required to foot the entirety of costs associated with road upgrades to Mahers and Greene roads, as opposed to just 40 per cent, the Warrenheip community feels let down.
"All our concerns have been brushed over," Ms Liddle said. "We [weren't] given a clear overview of the process and what things we should have expected from council."
"It's the lack of consultation," added Mr Frawley. "It's alright to have a planning permit that ticks all the boxes but I was very disappointed councillors didn't personally come out to look at the site and the roads in disrepair - we're eight kilometres away."
Still, with the developer required to meet the as yet unknown costs of the road upgrades, as well as the sewerage and water reticulation connections, it remains anyone's guess whether this hotel development ever goes ahead. And, of course, there's always VCAT to come.
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