PLANS for a 250-home residential estate in Dromana have cleared a major federal environmental hurdle despite ongoing concerns over the destruction of endangered swamp skink habitat. The Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has approved the proposed subdivision and development of land at 170 Boundary Rd and 62 Collins Rd under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This approval allows for the removal of 17.09 hectares of habitat used by the endangered swamp skink. The approval is subject to conditions, including environmental offsets at an approved site in Loch Sport. This decision comes after…
Browsing: Swamp Skink
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have supported an environmental submission on a proposed Dromana residential development, ensuring the council’s concerns for an endangered lizard species’ habitat are formally considered federally. The approval, passed at the 17 February council meeting, retrospectively endorses a submission lodged by shire officers during the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act public exhibition in November last year. The submission formalises the shire’s position on the project at 62 Collins Road and 170 Boundary Rd, which proposes a 250-lot residential subdivision including a 6.99-hectare conservation reserve. The land, currently vacant and heavily vegetated, is zoned Low Density…
PLANS for a new 250-home residential estate in Dromana could be reconsidered under federal environment laws as the Mornington Peninsula Shire pushes to protect a threatened lizard species within the site. The shire will formally make a submission to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek requesting that the proposed development of land at 62 Collins Rd and 170 Boundary Rd in Dromana be deemed a “controlled action” to protect the swamp skink, a nationally endangered species of lizard. The proposal includes 250 residential lots, a new 6.99-hectare conservation reserve that would protect existing “high-value” native vegetation, additional public open space areas…