Dennis More admits he got carried away when he began widening a canal with an excavator without first obtaining a council permit on his Geelong property in 2005.
The property developer said he wanted to create a marina on the 43-hectare site on the shores of Corio Bay, that would eventually form part of a low-scale residential village.
Developer Dennis More sitting at the shore of Corio Bay on the property he owns. Credit:Jason South
Sometimes driving a bulldozer himself, Mr More said he simply made the canal from the bay much wider and deeper to create a bigger body of water.
“I probably got ahead of myself,” he said. “The idea was sound. It’s just that I forgot to ask for permission.”
The City of Greater Geelong was not impressed.
The council took Mr More to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and he was ordered to carry out works on his Leopold property, including revegetation and narrowing the canal entrance.
Dennis More at his Leopold caravan park. Credit:Jason South
Now, Mr More is putting new homes up for sale on the site. But don’t call it a residential development. It is officially a caravan park.
Because the site is zoned for farming, which permits caravan parks, Mr More is prohibited from subdividing.
Instead, he is allowing buyers to purchase dwellings that will have up to three bedrooms and they will then lease the land on which the homes sit.
He insists this caravan park arrangement is an innovative use of the land that provides affordable homes, but critics say it’s a blatant attempt to exploit planning law loopholes.
Dennis More in 2005 Credit:John Woudstra
Mr More disputes this criticism, saying he has legitimate permits and is complying with the rules.
Selling prices for the homes will range from $320,000 to $500,000, while leasing will cost $165 a week for a couple. Mr More said such living arrangements were common elsewhere in Victoria.
“It’s not sneaky … They’ve got them, as far as I know, all around the country. We like to think we are building a better model and I think we have.”
The homes are known as unregistrable movable dwellings, although they look much like permanent houses.
John Shone and Dennis More in part of the project set aside for food production. Credit:Jason South
They are permitted in caravan parks and are defined as freestanding with solid walls and roofs but are constructed on a chassis or in prefabricated sections.
So far two households have moved into the development, dubbed Bellarine Urban Farm, which has plans for 136 permanent dwellings, 21 holiday homes and 36 campsites.
The project’s sales and marketing manager, John Shone, said there were also plans to include eight hectares of horticultural land producing fruit and vegetables, in addition to space for residents to grow food in their plots to help the community become self-sufficient.
Mr Shone said residents could eventually sell their produce through a farmgate store planned for the site.
“We’re creating a hyper-local economy, in a farm, on a caravan park,” he said.
RMIT planning Professor Michael Buxton said the project simply sought to build a large housing development in a rural area and it should not have been allowed to proceed.
“It’s a residential development in a farming zone,” he said.
Professor Buxton said developers would continue to build similar projects unless the government tightened planning laws to ensure that land zoned for farming was only used for rural purposes.
“The term urban farm is a total contradiction.”
Geelong Environment Council secretary Joan Lindros described the site as naturally attractive land that should be retained for agriculture even if caravan parks are permitted.
“It’s still destroying the farming values,” she said.
But Mr More said the land was infested with vermin when he bought it and he had vastly improved the wetlands and other environmental qualities.
Greater Geelong city planning and economy director Gareth Smith confirmed the site had a permit for a caravan park.
He said a market previously operating on the site, which was refused by the council, was no longer operating.
Now 16 years after his initial excavation work, Mr More said he was still unsure whether he needed permits.
“I didn’t believe you needed them at the time. I still don’t know,” he said.
“I just looked at it simplistically. Dig a hole … A kilometre canal was already here. Just make it a bit bigger, a bit deeper, a bit wider.”
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