Out With The Old at Phillip Island

THE owners of a 26-hectare Phillip Island farm, until three years ago owned by AMP Capital Investors and earmarked to become a retirement village, have applied to Bass Coast Shire Council to remove the entire aged-care component of the proposal.

The owner of the site paid AMP a reported $8 million for the Ventnor Road block and a permit for a 184-lot residential subdivision.

A major aged-care complex and community facilities were required to be developed as part of that permit. However, the council will now decide on whether to issue a new permit resulting in the entire farm, about three kilometres south-west of the centre of Cowes, being subdivided into 304 standard residential lots.

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$778 Million Housing Estate Fast Tracked by Planning Minister, Bacchus Marsh

PLANNING Minister Justin Madden has “fast tracked” a massive 141 hectare housing estate in Melbourne’s north-west outskirts.

The $778 million Riverside Estate, in Bacchus Marsh, has been proposed by former Victorian Football League player Stewart Gull and will include 1500 homes.

Being outside of metropolitan Melbourne, homes in the project are eligible for a taxpayer funded regional first-home buyers grant of $4,500 for supporting regional development.

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