AN employment precinct in Werribee has been given the green light by the state government under a 30-year plan that will include a hospital, new schools and 9000 more houses built in Wyndham.
The government and Growth Areas Authority yesterday released a precinct structure plan (PSP) for a new suburb at Werribee east, which will incorporate the long-awaited Werribee Employment Precinct.
The document outlines plans for a $40 million diamond interchange at Sneydes Road, which will be funded through land sales in the employment precinct.
Also approved was a PSP for Point Cook West which will see 2000 homes built on land bordering Hacketts and Sneydes Roads and the Princes Freeway.
The plan was opposed by Wyndham Council earlier this year due to fears that the Sneydes Road interchange would not be funded.
Speaking at the launch of the plans at the University of Melbourne’s Veterinary School in Werribee, Premier Ted Baillieu said the Werribee east development was five times bigger than Melbourne’s CBD and would bring 50,000 new jobs to Wyndham.
He said the precinct would include learning precincts, a 150-bed private hospital built by St Vincent’s Health and 7000 mixed density houses.
Planning Minister Matthew Guy said the precinct would help address Wyndham’s traffic problems by reducing the number of people leaving the municipality for work.
“We know we could double the capacity of the freeway and railway overnight and they would be at capacity a few years later. We need to be bringing jobs to the suburbs. [Wyndham residents] don’t all have to travel on the freeway to get to work in the morning.”
Mr Guy said the interchange at Sneydes Road would be a key part of the precinct, improving connections with Melbourne and Geelong. “It is unacceptable to have people living in Point Cook taking 40 minutes to get on the freeway. That is why we are going to commit now to $500,000 immediately to complete the design then, with the land sales, the construction of the Point Cook Sneydes Road interchange. We have been running a project to get this project support through the state and federal government and what has eventuated is we have taken the bull by the horns and we will fund the project ourselves through land sales.”
Wyndham mayor Heather Marcus said the announcement was a “major milestone”.
“[This] is a step in the right direction in terms of jobs creation and infrastructure investment for our city. Access to local jobs is essential to the future development of our growing city.” —Laura Little
