City of Ballarat Councillors last night received a summary of issues raised by community members and local agencies relating to the Draft Ballarat West Employment Zone (BWEZ) Master Plan during December and January.
The BWEZ Master Plan is a long-term, 20-year plan that will unlock land for industry to ensure quality infrastructure and jobs are available for Ballarat’s growing population.
Mayor Cr Mark Harris said Council had worked hard to ensure extensive community consultation was undertaken as part of the development of the Master Plan and was pleased to receive the summary of feedback.
“We’ve had over 50 separate meetings, consultation sessions and workshops that have involved a wide cross section of our community including agencies, residents, investors and local businesses. This has ensured that the key issues, constraints, and opportunities were identified early and taken into account when developing the draft Master Plan”.
“Any issues not already addressed in the draft will be fed back and used to refine the Master Plan before the final version is presented to Council”.
Key issues identified in the consultation period included:
- Extent of support for different land use options between Blind Creek Rd and the Ballarat-Ararat rail line
- Hydrology of the site
- Proximity of the site to Winter Swamp
- Presence of habitat for endangered species
- Heritage values of the Ballarat Airport
- Protection of amenity of nearby residential areas
Consultation also revealed a number of opportunities to be identified in the Master Plan including:
- The potential to create 9,000 jobs
- $5 billion of additional economic output every year
- Potential to capture a proportion of the $1.9 billion lost from the Ballarat economy in escape expenditure within Australia each year by targeting industry sectors
- Alternative energy
- Water reuse
- An innovation facility
- The ability to enhance the site’s landscape and environmental and heritage attributes
If the final BWEZ Master Plan is adopted by Council when presented in March, the process to introduce a Planning Scheme Amendment implementing the Master Plan into the Ballarat Planning Scheme will begin. Further public consultation and refinement of the Master Plan will be part of this process.
When fully developed, BWEZ will be the location of choice for regional, national, and international businesses, including manufacturing, freight, logistics, construction and wholesale trade. It applies an innovative response in integrating a number of environmental, hydrology, transport, energy, and commercial factors.
The BWEZ project is supported by the Victorian Government.