A DESERTED school campus in Wodonga should be transformed into housing similar to the Elmwood estate, a councillor believes.
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The old Wodonga South Primary School site in Jarrah Street has been empty of students since 2011 when classes were transferred to the Southern Rise Education Centre.
After suggestions the 1.9-ha site could have been used for a fire station or 10-bed mental health service, the Victorian government is now planning to sell it for housing.
Wodonga council chief executive Patience Harrington said no explicit date for a sale had been given by the government.
“We would expect certainly by mid next year, but at this stage there is no definitive time,” Ms Harrington said.
The council has told the government it would like to have planning control over the site which needs to be rezoned from public use as part of the sale process.
Councillors have welcomed progress on the site which has been the subject of complaints, initially with vandalism of abandoned buildings which were later demolished and more recently overgrown grass.
Mayor Anna Speedie said it should demonstrate the council’s work in achieving a good planning solution.
“It gives potentially some more certainty to the people who live in that area – it stops the phone calls about the long grass and people getting in there and vandalising the old site,” Cr Speedie said.
Resident Rozalja Carey, who has lived across the road from the site for 42 years and saw her two children attend the school, wants to have more neighbours.
“It’s an empty block, it would be nice if houses went up,” Mrs Carey said.
While the amount of blocks has not been decided, councillor Kat Bennett said the development should be comparable to the Elmwood estate created off Beechworth Road.
“It’s really important that council secures the role of the responsible authority so … whatever happens on that land we can ensure that it’s really high quality standard, similar to something like Elmwood, that’s accessible but also of a really good quality standard,” she said.
Councillor Ron Mildren, who is a planner, said the balance of neighbourhood character and amenity needed to be satisfactory.
“If we don’t have that, then we’ll have people that are very disappointed in things and we’ll have community members that will probably be telling us so,” he said.
“I’m sure I’m not the only councillor that has had phone calls from people in the general area expressing concerns as to what the outcomes are going to be.”
Former mayor John Watson said he hoped an “eyesore” would be removed.