Jennifer Pittorino
For Williamstown’s Techno Park residents, it seems like every day brings a new challenge.
Last week, the ABC published internal Hobsons Bay council documents sourced through a Freedom of information (FOI) request, which revealed details of a campaign to evict them from their homes.
For almost one year, residents have been involved in an ongoing battle with council.
Last May, council wrote Lara Week and dozens of her neighbours in the Williamstown estate ordering them to move out.
Techno Park Drive sits opposite a row of fuel storage tanks which are situated one kilometre away from a former fuel refinery owned by Mobil.
Among the documents obtained by the ABC, a planned eviction campaign titled ‘Operation Pegasus’ suggested Mobil asked the council to resolve the zoning issue as early as 2018, which Ms Week said contradicts the council’s public claims .
“You see them referring to the plan as Operation Pegasus, council’s code name for their eviction of families, pensioners and other low income residents from our homes,” she said.
“The information in their internal documents completely contradicts what they’ve been saying to the public.”
“Council said they were obliged to act urgently to remove people from their homes. But in 2022 they say they know of at least 40 of the units being residential, and that people have been living there for more than 15 years and are entitled to existing use rights to remain.”
Council documents from 2022 say that Mobil asked council to enforce the planning scheme four years prior, when the refinery was still in operation.
“It appears that back then council respected our existing use rights to stay in our homes. Why now are they trying to force a mass eviction?“ Ms Week said.
In what Ms Week described as a “disturbing read”, the documents also revealed council began planning the evictions at least six months before it ordered the residents immediate eviction.
Ms Week understands there are three ways these residents can remain in their homes.
One is for council to adopt a planning scheme amendment that would make residential use of homes in Techno Park valid.
“If our councillors want to stop this eviction, they can. They could vote for an overlay that would keep the zone industrial, and the homes residential. That is what councillors in the City of Yarra did in 2015,” she said.
“Or the planning minister could intervene and introduce a planning amendment herself.
“Or we could be forced to fight council in VCAT. If that has to happen, it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to ratepayers, and cost residents years of our lives.
“But our community is staying in our homes.”
A state government spokesperson said, “The council has not submitted a planning scheme amendment to rezone the land to the Department of Transport and Planning. Any submission would be assessed on its merits.“
Hobsons Bay council was approached for comment.
