Corangamite Shire Council adopts Cobden Structure Plan, denounces new windfall gains tax

Corangamite Shire councillors unanimously adopted the 15-20 year Cobden Structure Plan at a monthly meeting on Tuesday night.

The strategic document tables hundreds of new homes, a bigger industrial estate and a new settlement boundary for the town identified as a primary growth corridor.

Those plans are based on projections Cobden will see an increase of 1300 residents across 10 years, with a primary goal being to unlock enough land for an additional 600 houses over that same period.

But south-central ward councillor and Cobden resident Jo Beard said a new problem had surfaced.

"COVID hit and all of a sudden we had no housing, no rentals and not a lot of options for people to invest in new residential growth," she said.

"Housing supply and availability is a significant issue in Cobden. We simply don't have enough - or market-ready - land to support population growth, township sustainability and key worker and affordable housing, all of which is significant for people relocating to rural areas.

"...The state government's windfall gains tax is a significant issue for turning over some developments into residential housing opportunities.

"Anyone who has their farming land turned into residential land must pay significant tax on that upward trend.

"A lot of good, local community people who happen to have some farming zone which we've identified as rezoning to residential to help support the issues we have in Cobden are going to be hit with this significant tax which is of no value to rural or regional communities particularly in Corangamite Shire.

"I know our CEO Andrew Mason has been battling this one at Rural Councils Victoria. I think as councillors - and I implore any other councils out there listening - that we need to go in and bat harder for this because it's going to defeat the purpose of what we're trying to do about opening residential growth areas in our communities.

"It'll become non-viable for those developers being our local people to actually turn a profit. I'm really worried about that so I hope we can continue to make a bit of noise about that."

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Deputy mayor Geraldine Conheady agreed.

"It's pretty disappointing, it's just completely at odds with the recognised need for housing in the regions. It's just creating hurdles for regional infrastructure development and economic development and opportunities and jobs - it's the last thing we need, really," she said.

"I'm sorry this tax is being imposed on us, especially as our farming zones quite often come right up to our town boundaries, so a lot of our community will potentially be impacted by it.

"It's really going to hold back development. A lot of the developers are quite small and it probably won't be viable for them to go ahead. It's definitely a blow to us."

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