By Ryan O’Connell
MEMBERS of the Tottenham Residents Group made an emotive appeal to council at last week’s Community Access and Strategic Policy (CASP) meeting, expressing residents’ confusion and fear over a warehouse fire that spread chlorinated smoke into their houses in December last year.
A motion will be put forward at tonight’s Maribyrnong Council meeting for an investigation into the feasibility of rezoning industrial areas involved in the accident. The area in question falls between Indwe St, Paramount Rd, Stony Creek and Cala St, West Footscray. The storage site, owned by West Point, is located in an Industrial Zone 1 (Heavy Industry) with only a 200m Industrial 3 zone acting as a buffer between it and residential housing.
“The issue is that the buffers don’t work. Having Industrial Zone 1 so close to private residences just doesn’t work,” said Fiona Robbins of the Tottenham Residents Group.
“Companies are storing dangerous goods on the doorstep of private housing. The highest industrial zoning in that area should be Zone 3, and nothing other than that,” she said.
If council passes the motion, the investigation could be the first step into the lengthy rezoning process.
“An amendment to the planning scheme to change the zoning of the area could take one to two years, depending upon the process, the issues that need addressing and the level of objection to the rezoning,” council manager of strategy and economic development David Walmsley said.
While council can initiate a rezoning, the Minister for Planning must agree to the preparation of an amendment to Maribyrnong Planning Scheme and ultimately approve the rezoning, following community consultation.
