Geelong Council adopts Significant Landscape Overlay to five areas of the Bellarine Peninsula including Clifton Springs and Drysdale

The City of Greater Geelong has adopted Amendment C177 at their meeting held on Tuesday, 24 August 2010.
Amendment C177 proposes that the Significant Landscape Overlay (SLO) be applied to five identified areas of land on the Bellarine Peninsula
The five areas are:

• SLO 10: Lake Connewarre Escarpment, with the exception of the property at 161-183 Ash Road
• SLO 11: Lake Victoria and Yarram Creek
• SLO 12: Swan Bay and surrounds
• SLO 13: Murradoc Hill, and
• SLO 14: Clifton Springs to Portarlington Coast.

The Council has notified all relevant government departments, statutory authorities, community and environment  groups, and all landowners directly affected by the proposed SLO.
Submissions on the amendment were referred to a government-appointed Independent Panel for consideration, with the Panel hearing being held between 5 and 7 May this year at City Hall in Geelong.
The Panel’s report subsequently recommended the adoption of Amendment C177.
The report concluded that the amendment supports both State and Local planning policy to protect significant coastal landscapes in non-urban areas of the Bellarine Peninsula through the implementation of the Coastal Spaces Landscape Assessment Study. Cr Katos said Council officers agreed with the Panel’s recommendations.
More information is available from the Geelong Council's Agenda from 24 August 2010 and the minutes when they become available.
Update 31 August 2010: The Minutes from 24 August 2010 Geelong Council Meeting are now available - refer pages 9 - 86.