Hobsons Bay council has called for a correction to the draft Plan Melbourne: Metropolitan Planning Strategy, which refers to land in Kororoit Creek Road next to Mobil’s Altona refinery as solely industrial.
The council also wants the state government to give “formal recognition” to safety buffers around major hazard facilities (MHFs).
Last week’s council meeting heard that precinct 13 in Kororoit Creek Road was partly owned by Mobil. A council report stated potentially homes could be built on it.
Strand ward councillor Angela Altair said “We need to get Plan Melbourne to correct and clarify their identification of that precinct,” she said.
Cr Peter Hemphill, also of Strand ward, told the council meeting the government had “deficiencies” when it came to MHFs.
“That’s particularly an issue that we’ve raised time [and] again with the Port Phillip Mill site. We have a disproportionate amount of MHFs in our municipality; I think there are eight out of something like 43.”
Mayor Sandra Wilson said several concerns specific to Hobsons Bay needed to be addressed, including “planning around industrial areas and major hazard facilities and the formal recognition of buffer zones”.
Mobil spokeswoman Melanie Saliba said: “Mobil understands that all of the land in precinct 13 is currently zoned industrial”.
Mobil has previously joined the council in requesting the government give “more serious consideration” to residential development near MHFs.
As reported by the Weekly last month, a parliamentary vote for an inquiry into buffers between residential development and MHFs was defeated in the upper house 20-18. Labor and Greens MPs supported an inquiry, but it was opposed by Coalition MPs.
Melbourne’s west has 13 registered MHFs.
