By Tanya Steele
A scheme amendment allowing for the development of a solar farm at a property in The Basin has extended its engagement with the public until 24 December.
Residents from The Basin will have until Christmas Eve to weigh in on the proposal after an admin error left out a glint and glare report on the Engage website.
The Salvation Army plans to build a solar farm on 49 Basin-Olinda Road. The property is currently utilised for an alcohol and drug rehabilitation centre with cattle grazing in the paddocks.
The missed out flint and glare report has now been uploaded to the website in addition to a host of documents already there, the plans detail an eight-hectare solar farm with approximately 11,000 solar panels on two to three-metre-high frames to allow the use of land underneath for sheep grazing and carbon farming.
Group commercial manager at the Salvation Army Robert Johnston said they are essentially having the land rezoned.
“The solar farm isn’t going to take up all that piece of land that’s been identified as the rezoning. It’s just that the piece that we’ve isolated for that is a smaller piece of part of that,” he said.
“They’ve got to do it to link it to a title, which is why it’s been identified as that rectangle piece of land.”
Major projects manager from ABS Australian Battery Solar and Energy Solutions Pty Ltd Colin Gillam said his company got involved in the planning around four years ago to look at a whole range of different things to potentially use the land for – with the Salvation Army wanting to gain some value from the property and also achieve carbon zero emissions.
“It (the land) has really limited development potential and it being in a flood plain area, housing and things like that are unlikely to ever be permitted there,” he said.
Mr Gillam said ABS has spent the last two years doing the financial modelling, connection applications, planning applications or amendments.
“We have also spent a considerable amount of time talking to local environment groups, community groups and various individual residents from time to time – although it’s difficult to get to everybody.”
The whole area falls within a special use zone, with a portion in the northern corner that is part of a green wedge zone.
“We’re using eight of the 120 hectares, the balance is not being touched by us at all and the green wedge is in that balance of 120,” said Mr Gillam.
Explanatory notes on the Victoria Engage website state that the amendment will provide environmental, economic and social benefits by realising the opportunity for renewable energy generation in this location in a manner that respects the green wedge.
“Notably, this policy includes a strategy to provide opportunities for renewable energy generation.” it reads.
Mr Gillam said the site selection was partly made at the southern end of the property because of a line of trees that runs along Dobson’s Creek, which is what forms the southern boundary
“There is a row of pine trees and those pine trees are between 70 and 80 years old. They’ve reached the end of their life,” he said.
“About two-thirds of them have already died and fallen over and been removed. The rest of them are in really poor condition.”
Some residents have had concerns about the proposed changes that range from worries about the extent of the land use,interupted views of the Dandenong Ranges, the by passing of Knox Council, the future of the cattle that are currently grazing there and some of the changes proposed for areas of vegetation on the property.
Mr Johnston has walked the property himself and said a lot of people are assuming that that whole piece of land is going to be covered in solar panels.
“It’s not. It’s a small triangular piece,” he said.
Mr Gillam said that the whole area that’s being zoned for the potential solar farm is eight hectares, but effectively will only use around about four hectares of that.
Mr Johnston said the cattle that are on the site at the moment will be moved to other parts of the farm.
“This happens almost weekly – the number of cattle on the property is carefully managed to avoid overstocking,” he said.
“The size of the property provides the opportunity to carry far more stock numbers than we do, as we have never tried to maximise the carrying capacity of the site.
The site is capable of carrying at least 100 head of cattle all year, but Mr Johnston said they only ever have 20-30 head at any one time.
President of the Knox Environment Society Richard Farrager said that while KES is generally in favour of solar farms they have some concerns around the space.
“There is the importance of this landscape view to the community looking out across the rural landscape to the magnificent backdrop of the Dandenong Ranges,” he said.
“We have a concern that once the precedence has been set then more development on this site may take place.”
Resident Lynette Hayhurst said concerns by her and others also centre around the way the engagement has taken place and are asking for more constructive communication so that the community feel heard.
“Fellow residents have told me that this is a major change in this town, but they’re not letting everybody know about it,” she said.
“They feel like the government don’t care about environment and people – they only care about business and profit.”
The address of the property itself is not listed on the National Trust website but was listed in this way on older built form documents from 2016 on the Knox Council website as follows:
“The Basin paddocks are registered with the National Trust, a non-statutory body with an interest in preserving local and state cultural heritage. These views of the Dandenongs and basin paddocks (Salvation Army land) contribute significantly to a unique, semi-rural village,” read the 2016 document.
National Trust was contacted for comment.
Mr Farrager said there has been a lot of conjecture, speculation and concern about the future of this site and the drain on the Salvation Army in resources to upkeep it.
“The TSA needs to have a full and frank discussion with the community about its future and allay concerns about what might happen to the site,” he said.
In the long term, Mr Johnston said Salvation Army have no plans to extend the solar farm beyond the site they have selected but intends to apply to the distributed network service provider to install a battery.
“The solar farm and all our on-roof solar will be more than enough to power Salvo’s sites in Victoria for as far into the future as we can realistically forecast,” he said.
The battery is planned to provide power to TSA sites when the sun isn’t shining and increase the stability of power for the local region.
“The battery will be able to be accessed by the network operator when required, such as during times of high demand and in emergencies or where there are power outages that stop power from being supplied to that region.”
A spokesperson from Knox Council said the most recent planning strategy that considered The Basin paddocks area was the Knox Green Areas and Rural Strategy, which sets a vision that the precinct will be protected as an ecologically significant area with a distinct natural and rural landscape character, providing a scenic gateway to the Dandenong Ranges.
“Furthermore, the strategy prioritises the conservation and enhancement of the precinct’s biodiversity, waterways and landscape values, while supporting compatible land use such as sustainable agriculture, rural living, recreation and community uses that complement and enhance these values,” they said.
Knox Council have their draft amendment to the Knox planning scheme – c202 knox proposal on their agenda for the last council meeting of the year on Monday 16 December and it looks set to go over their submission to the engagement process.
“Community consultation has not been undertaken on council’s submission given the accessibility of the government’s consultation, the technical nature of the draft amendment and the timing of the consultation process,” read the agenda.
“The amendment is not expected to create significant social, economic or environmental risk to the community.”
Residents can get informed by reading the plans at the Engage website and make a submission by 24 December at the following web address: https://engage.vic.gov.au/draft-amendment-to-the-knox-planning-scheme-c202knox
