By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Could there be a Christmas miracle in store for Narre Warren North’s John Foy?
In days, Planning Panels Victoria member Con Tsotsoros is expected to rule on whether Casey Council can compulsorily acquire Mr Foy’s 34-acre home, garden and habitat lake for a three-pitch soccer reserve.
Mr Foy, 78, objects to the proposal – not least the access road that would plough through his house, hundreds of native plantings and the sanctuary for all sorts of wildlife that he’s created over the past 35 years.
He wishes that Mr Tsotsoros – who held the one-day hearing at Casey Civic Centre on 1 December – had ventured up the road to see the persuasive splendours of the property first-hand.
“How can you make a decision without visiting the property, to see the work that I’ve done?
“I think it’s a terrible waste of a good house, for a start.”
Besides, he lists several varieties of frogs and water birds, including the scarse freckled duck and the shoveller that have lived here.
This spring, Pacific Black ducks raised offspring in nesting boxes on the lake’s island and venture via Mr Foy’s network of frog ponds to Eumemmerring Creek.
Scores of ibis at a time, gang gang cockatoos, kangaroos, honey-eaters, robin red-breasts, blue wreens and copperhead snakes have been sighted since Mr Foy transformed bare paddocks and a tiny billabong.
Mr Foy is pretty happy with his handiwork, though he wishes he made the lake even larger.
“It’s the only thing I wished I had have done.”
Casey council has justified the acquisition by the shortage of soccer fields in the municipality’s north, as well as joining it to the next-door Narre Warren North Reserve.
It also has plans to build the “missing link” in a trail between Frog Hollow Reserve and Lysterfield Lake.
The trail section would follow Eumemmerring Creek bisecting the property.
Mr Foy said he has had the looming acquisition “hanging over my head” for close to a decade.
Yet he said he and neighbouring residents were “ill prepared” for the final act due to Casey delaying its release of the full details of its plans.
It was not until days before the hearing that Mr Foy learnt of the plotted destruction of the house, garden and lake.
Had they known of the scale of the project, more neighbours would have objected, Mr Foy said.
“The council secrecy is the big issue and they’re well known for it. They’re things I should have told the (panel) hearing.”
Casey statutory planning manager Duncan Turner said publicly exhibited information had included reference to “the future expansion of district leisure and sporting facilities”, as well as the shared user path link.
The owners of the property, owners and occupiers of surrounding land were notified of the amendment’s exhibition in writing, Mr Turner said.
From legal advice, Mr Foy believes there’s no point trying to appeal the panel decision if it goes against him. Appeals rarely win, he was told.
He has no plans of where to move instead. Despite the lawful compensation he’d receive, no place would replicate his home.
“Besides, I haven’t lost this battle yet.”
