By JESSE GRAHAM
YARRA Glen landowners may have to cough up $1 million for a new road, despite fierce debate over the costs, based on council’s proposals at a meeting last week.
A proposal for a Special Charge Scheme for construction of an urban-style road on Ellis Road and Forest Street in Yarra Glen came before the council on Tuesday 9 September.
The proposal includes kerb-and-channel and underground drainage works to be completed along the currently unsealed sections of road, at a total cost of around $1,442,000 — $1,060,000 of which would be paid by landowners.
Resident Les King spoke at the meeting, and told councillors he believed the road works were unnecessarily expensive, arguing in favour of a sprayed rural seal, rather than the urban works.
The cost to landowners is expected to be around $12,000 per property for the kerb and channel works, and Mr King said a rural seal would cost about half of that.
Mayor Fiona McAllister and councillors Andy Witlox and Jim Child agreed with Mr King, with Cr McAllister branding the urban works as a “Rolls Royce” solution to the road problem.
However, Environment and Engineering director Mark Varmalis said a rural seal would break down quickly and become expensive to replace, due to high volumes of traffic on the roads, which were located near the Yarra Glen Primary School and the Yarra Glen Child Care Centre.
Mr Varmalis said that frequent turning into driveways would degrade the surface, and that the drainage works with the urban-roads would be needed for the area.
“It’s all about a lasting product that is not a financial liability to the council and other ratepayers,” he said.
Mr Varmalis said the works, should the landowners agree to them, would be undertaken by contractors who would compete for lower prices, and that any overcharge would be returned to the landowners once works were completed.
Cr McAllister noted that the returned money would likely not be the $6000-per-household difference estimated between the rural seal and kerb-and-channel works.
The motion passed in a four-to-three vote and, as a result, a questionnaire will be prepared to determine landowner support for the proposed charge.
Should the landowners support the charge, a report will come back to the council to begin the process.
