Ready for landing

Enhanced image of a possible future reality for Cardinia Shire airspace.

By ANEEKA SIMONIS

MORE than five million airline passengers would be able to get up and away annually from a Cardinia Shire airport that has been put into formal planning.
Last week, Cardinia Shire Council announced they will formally adopt a strategy to support the planning and construction of the city’s third airport – likely to be located between Kooweerup and Lang Lang.
Specifically, the planning documents suggest the possible $5 billion airport could take shape at the former WWII training airfield in Monomeith or at nearby land on Mcdonalds Road, Lang Lang.
The details of the proposed 20-gate airport were outlined in the State Government planning strategy Plan Melbourne.
It suggests up to 110,000 additional jobs may be created as a result of the south-eastern airport designed to eliminate the “increasingly difficult” journey residents in the state’s east and south-east have to endure before their flight even takes off.
“An airport to the south-east of Melbourne would serve one-third of Victoria’s population, including the 300,000 residents of Gippsland,” the Plan Melbourne initiative reads.
As part of the plan, council also intends to map out appropriate nearby land for commercial and industrial use.
More than 5500 acres of “employment land” could be unlocked if the plan goes ahead – equivalent to 25.6 per cent of Melbourne’s employment land production over the coming four decades, according to the council document.
Council plans to work together with the Department of State Development, Business and Innovation on the project which would be expected to create a $22.5 billion economic impact during the construction phase.
Plan Melbourne was developed under the previous government in the lead-up to the 2014 election.
A State Government spokesperson said “a lot of good work went into Plan Melbourne”, suggesting parts of it may be included in the government’s refreshed version of the plan due to be released in the first quarter of 2016.
“I want to bring the community voice back to the process. We need to have the Plan Melbourne that the community and stakeholders intended; the one we were meant to have,” said Minister for Planning Richard Wynne.
Councils, including Cardinia Shire, are expected to be consulted in the lead-up to the release of the renewed plan.