Support group backs

BERWICK Village Chamber of Commerce has formed a support group for its representative on a committee established to discuss planning strategies for the wider commercial and educational precinct at Berwick.
The committee, the Casey Technology Park Steering Committee, was formed as part of the planning process for the 412area.
Chamber president Michael Hall, who represents the chamber on the committee, said it was particularly important for Enterprise Avenue business people to provide input.
He told a meeting of business people from the Enterprise Avenue precinct last month that there was a need for business people to be aware of development issues in the wider area.
The meeting, on Wednesday 19 January, heard that the value of their property and businesses would be directly affected by the outcomes of the planning process.
One of the main threats to the area is a, so far, covert plan by Monash University to use part of the university campus for residential development.
Berwick residents fought a long battle to have this land made available to the university for tertiary purposes. This land appears to have been placed under consideration as part of the technology park development.
Chamber efforts to have the university and the City of Casey publicly reveal the plans have been fruitless.
Mr Hall has warned that a grade separation solution to the Enterprise Avenue/Clyde Road intersection could cut Enterprise Avenue and make it a backwater. He insists that the solution lies in taking the railway system underground.
However, Edrington Ward councillor Mick Morland said this could provide the government with a massive problem because of cost.
He said it was doubtful that the floor space gained by taking the trains underground would be valued high enough to cover the cost.
“This is different to what we are doing in the civic centre precinct where the land value is enormous.”
Mr Hall said the Berwick precinct would be larger than the Melbourne central business district and that the idea could be made to work.
He said the community should be allowed a voice on the fate of the university land.
“We need different thinking. I am concerned that the steering committee is a way for the university to achieve what it wants.
“But we should be focusing on what a technology park really means,” he said.