Experts say places of worship overlooked in planning for new suburbs

An application to relocate the Bethel New Life Christian Fellowship has sparked controversy across the community. (ABC News: Maren Preuss) Experts say places of worship are not being considered in new suburb plans. The City of Casey is considering an application for a church in a green wedge zone. It comes as other councils grapple with similar planning issues. Link copiedShareShare articleFor many communities moving to Melbourne's booming outer fringes, a place to worship is crucial. But experts say a lack of proper planning is leading to conflict between religious communities, environmentalists and other residents when it comes to building new churches, mosques and temples in the city's growth corridors. In the city's outer south-east, an application right across the road from the urban growth boundary is the latest to cause tensions. The Bethel New Life Christian Fellowship has submitted plans for a $3.5 million development, including a double-storey church for up to 400 patrons and 120 car parking spaces, on Cranbourne-Frankston Road in Cranbourne South, opposite a bustling residential development. The application is in a green wedge zone, right across the road from a major housing development. (ABC News: Maren Preuss) Pastor Nithun Britto said the congregation has outgrown its space in an industrial part of Dandenong, where it conducts Sunday services for up to 300 people in Tamil and 100 people in English. He said they spent two years looking for an appropriate site for a new church within the booming Clyde-Cranbourne South area, which up to 90 per cent of the congregation calls home. But they couldn't find anything big enough for a growing church, within their price range and inside the urban growth boundary. Pastor NIthun Britto says the community would have bought a better site if they could. (ABC News: Maren Preuss) "A community thrives when people can connect and grow together and not be in isolation, and this is one thing that is being overlooked," Pastor Britto said. "They're looking at shops, they're looking at schools, all very vital, but I feel a community gathering place, places of worship, is a key foundation." After they bought the $1.8 million site, the church group spent three years putting together a planning application they hope will tick all the boxes, including reducing the original footprint and maintaining many of the trees. "We're doing our level best to try and blend with what already exists there rather than just make a random thing that just pops up there," Pastor Britto said. The Bethel New Life Christian Fellowship has outgrown its current church in an industrial area in Dandenong. (ABC News: Maren Preuss) The City of Casey will now consider the application. Anthony Tassone, from the Casey Residents and Ratepayers Association, lodged an objection to the application due to its location in a green wedge zone. "People do need a place to worship and observe their faith, we are a diverse community here in the City of Casey and proudly so," he said. "But what we need to do is better plan for our growing community and not allow these types of developments to be plonked in green wedge that are not suitable here and completely inconsistent with the purpose of what green wedge stands for." Locals Anthony Tassone (left), Jenny Dalgleish (middle) and Robert Deane (right) are objecting to the application. (ABC News: Patrick Rocca) Robert Deane has lived nearby for more than 40 years, and said the application threatened what the community loved about the area. "We're a green wedge and this development is not in keeping with the green wedge, it's more an urban style place and this is what we're losing out on," he said. He pointed to a big housing development on the opposite side of the urban growth boundary running along Cranbourne-Frankston Road. "It's like the western front — on one side you've got no-man's-land and then you've got urban development encroaching on the green wedge," he said. Jenny Dalgleish from the Western Port Green Wedge Protection Group said maintaining the boundary was critical. "The reason it was put in place was for agriculture, conservation, outdoor recreation and we need to support the biodiversity in this area," she said. "We have so many endangered species in this area, not just the southern brown bandicoot but we've got koalas, wedge-tailed eagles, powerful owls, and we need to protect them for generations to come." Experts say social infrastructure is not always effectively planned for new growth areas. (ABC News: Patrick Rocca) She said applications for places of worship in green wedge areas were becoming more frequent, and more needed to be done to allow people to practice their faith inside the urban growth boundary. "It is a big issue because they're just popping up everywhere and a lot of them are just operating quietly but a lot of them are big proposals and there's a lot to come," she said. She pointed to a proposed $2

Experts say places of worship overlooked in planning for new suburbs

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