IN the dim lights of Williamstown’s Mechanics Institute, hundreds rallied on Saturday against plans to build a ‘Beacon Cove’ in their suburb.
The meeting, organised by Save Williamstown, was a display of defiance against plans for a high-rise high-density development on the Port Phillip Woollen Mill site.
Save Williamstown members last week attended a two-day hearing at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to fight the proposed demolition of mill buildings.
The demolition would clear the way for plans by Nelson Place Village Pty Ltd to build potentially more than 800 dwellings housing 2000 residents.
Residents say the developer is trying to wear them down by dividing the site into 17 parcels and lodging multiple applications.
Daniel McKinnon told the crowd at Saturday’s rally that residents had been fighting for four years and were not about to give up.
He said delays had hurt the developer financially and with another election scheduled for November 2014 the state government could change.
“In the last election, the Liberal Party promised no high-rise in Williamstown — remember that?
“And then when the [Liberal Planning] Minister [Matthew Guy] did the overlay for the site, he removed mandatory height limits. So I’m not sure how those two things reconcile.
“We can cost them money, we can cost them delays and in the end we can win. And that’s what we’re gonna do, we’re gonna win.
“We’ve had fights like this before. Who can remember Point Gellibrand when Kennett wanted to make it into housing? We fought and fought and now it’s a beautiful heritage park.”
Residents are establishing a Supreme Court fighting fund in the event of a defeat at VCAT.
Western suburbs upper house MP Andrew Elsbury became the first Liberal politician to address a Save Williamstown public meeting.
He gave an undertaking he would write to Hobsons Bay Council to tell it that it was responsible for an emergency management plan to deal with any “event” at Mobil’s Point Gellibrand major hazard plant, which supplies fuel for half of Victoria and is within 300 metres of the development site.
“The construction of the site has been deemed as such that it is able to withstand an initial event from the storage facility,” Mr Elsbury said.
“From memory, it’s supposed to be able to handle a category-four cyclone, which means that the force from any sort of blast or an incident occurring at the site will allow for people to escape the building and get to safety.”
He said the government did not impose height limits because it wanted the community and the council to decide how high the development should be.
Save Williamstown spokesman Godfrey Moase told residents that safety and human life should come before profit. A resolution calling for an independent risk assessment was approved with a sea of raised hands.
