HUNDREDS of trees are likely to be removed from a heavily treed 2.73 hectare-block in the Woodlands area of Mount Eliza to make way for eight houses.
An application is currently before council Mornington Peninsula Shire Council for the subdivision and proposed vegetation removal at 273 Canadian Bay Road, including 444 trees.
The council’s manager of development services David Simon said the council had received an application to subdivide the land into eight lots, which involved removing most of non-native trees on the site as well as some native trees.
He said the application was still under consideration and had been referred for comment to Melbourne Water and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.
Under the vegetation protection overlay, a permit is required to remove any vegetation, and all trees must be considered, native or not, under their “arboricultural value”, environmental value and habitat value.
Responding to concern from nearby residents about tree canopy loss, Simon said the removal of native vegetation required further consideration of biodiversity impacts and potential impacts on habitat for rare and threatened species.
Despite the council officer’s assurance that all trees must be considered, a council report states that 469 trees were assessed, and most were determined as “low value”.
The report also noted that 25 trees had moderate retention value because they were hollow-bearing indigenous species and potentially provided shelter for native wildlife.
The report stated that the trees these trees had “poor structure and/or poor health”.
No trees were assessed as having “high retention value”.
First published in the Mornington News – 8 August 2023
