By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
ANY chance of the former Doveton North Primary School site being used for public housing has been all but lost after the State Government sold the land this month.
The $4.2 million sale of the land on 14 May comes as public tenders for the former Doveton Secondary College and Eumemmering Primary School sites officially closed yesterday (Wednesday), with all three properties expected to be used for private residential accommodation.
In February, the government rezoned a number of surplus school sites for residential use, including the three Doveton school sites which have been vacant since 2008. The rezoning of these three schools followed an endorsement from the City of Casey, and any future development of these sites will also be subject to council’s approval.
Andrews Centre manager Judy Martin, based in Endeavour Hills, said there was a “chronic shortage” of public housing facilities in the area and slammed the selling of the Doveton sites as a missed opportunity.
Ms Martin said she had previously written to the government expressing the viability of the sites as potential public housing venues, but added that discussions never progressed.
“With the proliferation of boarding houses in this whole corridor, and how they’re clearly not wonderful places for people to live, it’s a no brainer that we need more public housing,” she said.
“If you had more housing, rental prices wouldn’t be so high because there’d be more competition and it would have an impact on every one concerned.
“They have to do something to address the chronic housing shortage; they have to commit funds from somewhere.
“The Doveton sites are perfect in that they’re close to public transport that people on lower incomes need. It seems short sighted for the government to sell the sites off for more houses that people can buy as investment properties when others don’t even have a roof over their heads.”
Ex-Doveton North Primary School principal Max Walker also added his voice to the growing concern over the use of the vacant land.
“We have thousands of people that are homeless at night, there should have been creative thinking about this, where we could have looked at that and maybe developed it into flats,” Mr Walker said.
“I don’t think any of us knew what was happening to them, when we asked questions, we got the same answer whether it was this government or the one before – that they’ll be sold and probably sold to private developers.
“There was no opportunity for community involvement to say what we want.”
Dandenong Labor MP John Pandazopoulos agreed that the government’s decision to “fast-track” the selling of the sites didn’t allow enough time for public consultation.
“It seems that opportunities have been lost for all these sites because the government wanted to fast track the sale,” Mr Pandazopoulos said.
“It’s a bit worrying that you may not always get the best value and you lose transparency.
“The government is selling land right across Victoria for some reason without public input. Maybe, we’d like 10 per cent for public housing,” he said.
A spokesman for Assistant Treasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips said proceeds from the sale of the Doveton sites would be reinvested into schools and hospitals.
The spokesman also defended the government’s processes involving land sales following media criticism this week that the Coalition had not followed through on its promise of establishing a state register of significant public land.
“The government is reforming land sales processes to make departments review their land holdings annually,” the spokesman said.
“This will ensure they are targeted to service delivery outcomes and make the process of divestment quicker and more transparent, so that vacated sites do not sit abandoned, derelict and decaying, as was the case under Labor.”
The development of a Victorian Government land sales website is ongoing, and we expect it to be launched in 2014,” the spokesman said.
