Jandakot residents association chair Leanne Chaproniere (right) with members Tarun Dewan and Jeanette Smith at the abandoned Glen Iris links.
NEARLY 3000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling on Cockburn council and planning minister Rita Saffioti to reject a housing development on the abandoned Glen Iris Golf Course.
The course was recently sold to developer Eastcourt Property Group which has flagged “premium housing” for the 25-hectare site.
But the Jandakot Residents and Ratepayers Association has many members whose homes fringe the fairways and it says the proposed development shouldn’t go ahead.
Chair Leanne Chaproniere told the Herald there was more at stake than just protecting green views from their backyards.
“There is only one road in and one road out – how are they going to deal with all that extra traffic,” Ms Chaponiere said.
Committee member Jeanette Smith said the course provided habitat to a wide range of animals, including a healthy population of quenda who often visit her backyard. She also gets mobs of black cockies coming past regularly.
Ms Chaponiere says Ms Saffioti should block any rezoning of the land because it would expose too many people to the noise of Jandakot airport.
“The golf course is a buffer, those five-acre homes are a buffer as well,” she says pointing to a few dozen semi-rural properties which fringe one of Australia’s busiest airspaces. council’s plans for a nine-hole course in Coogee, saying while it might be useful for weekend hackers, it would be useless for clubs such as her husband’s, which was displaced when Glen Iris closed.
“Who wants to play nine holes,” she scoffed.
Ms Chaponiere said before Covid-19 kicked in her husband’s club had to book weeks in advance to get onto neighbouring courses, and she reckons that undermines claims Glen Iris wasn’t a sustainable course.
The association has created sub-committees who’ll probe into every aspect of the rezoning and development proposals, and while Ms Chaproniere said they intended to play fair, there was a determined resolve from members to do whatever it took.