Phase 2 Consultation Concludes
Our thanks to all who provided feedback on our ‘Ideas plan’ for the future of Rossdale Golf Course as part of Phase 2 of our consultation during July and August 2024. We are pleased to release a summary of community feedback we received and what consultation took place.
Over 180 people attended either our webinar or drop-in sessions while this website received over 3,500 individual visits during the Phase 2 consultation period.
The five main themes raised during Phase 2 consultations were:
- Traffic impacts and management
- Impact on green space / open space, wildlife habitats, and local biodiversity
- Density and design of the proposed housing
- Role of site in local flood management
- Level of communication about the development from planning authorities.
Many suggestions were raised as to how to address these matters. For what we heard at each of our consultation forums please take a look at the full report.
Next steps
The project team is working through feedback from the Phase 2 consultation. We will soon provide an update about how your feedback has been taken into account with our plans for the redevelopment ahead of submitting the plans to authorities for a formal assessment.
What's happening?
The Rossdale Golf Club (The Club) in Aspendale (City of Kingston), 25 kilometres south-east from the Melbourne CBD has been facing significant financial pressures and faces imminent closure. The Club's financial bottom line is not able to fund the ongoing needs and capital requirements needed for long term viability at the current site. The Club has had to implement various short-term solutions to address immediate funding needs, including the sale of some land (2,400 square metres) in 2015. Additional options have also been explored, such as merging with other clubs, however these were not viable.
The current finances are insufficient to meet the Club’s needs, which when combined with increasing business costs, leads to the clear conclusion that the Club ‘as is’ has no long-term viability at the current Aspendale site. Looking forward, the cost of improving the golf course to incorporate contemporary design standards and facilities is beyond the Club’s reach.
The Club has no choice other than seeking to exit, selling its land and use the money to seek a new golf facility opportunity for its members. On 23 December 2018, by Special Resolution of the Rossdale Golf Club members, over 90% of meeting attendees resolved to sell the Club's site and explore relocation to a nearby location.
The Club has engaged an expert project team to investigate how the current Rossdale Golf Course site in Aspendale may be redeveloped in the future. This redevelopment will fund the Club's relocation and enable it to repay its debts.
The Club acknowledges there will be significant change which may be of concern to local residents and community members. As part of this plan, we are committed to delivering community benefits for the Aspendale community.
New community assets may include:
- Providing publicly accessible open spaces.
- Reducing risks of off-site flood impacts by building on-site water retention basins.
- Providing a range of housing opportunities for diverse family types
- Providing on-site community facilities or education facilities
- Providing monetary contributions towards the upgrading of existing off-site neighbourhood sporting facilities.
Planning guidelines
We have nearly completed initial stages of the planning process including a detailed site analysis, ensuring that we have thoroughly addressed matters required under Steps 1-4 of the Planning Guidelines.
We have now commenced Step 6 of the Planning Guidelines: Provide a land use concept that delivers net community benefit along with ongoing community consultation (Step 5).
Also of relevance to Your Future Rossdale are Kingston Council’s recently approved residential zones / planning rules which cover everything from affordable homes to sustainable housing development and much more.
