305-signature petition fails to stop Challenger Street BMX park plan

A 305-signature petition opposing the site has not stopped Nillumbik Shire Council from endorsing a final concept plan for a BMX Jumps and Community Recreation Park at Challenger Street Reserve. Cr Kelly Joy voted against the plan, while the other councillors voted in favour.

The proposal received 82 per cent support in a community survey that drew 343 responses. It is intended to replace informal community-built jumps and provide active youth recreation in Diamond Creek.

Environmental and cultural-heritage work remains before the project reaches later design and delivery stages. Residents asked how the Challenger Street wetlands would be protected from erosion, waste and pollution linked to construction and use of the park.

Council said planning would draw on a draft Flora and Fauna Assessment and Impact Analysis, an Arborist Report and the requirements of Environmental Significance Overlay Schedule 1. Further environmental studies and reviews of existing plans will guide detailed design and information for a planning permit application.

A Cultural Heritage Management Plan is also planned, with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation involved in cultural-heritage planning for the project.

Challenger Street Reserve was selected after officers assessed alternative locations against four criteria: being in Diamond Creek, being close to the informal community-built jumps, sitting outside the 1:100 floodplain and being outside a 200-metre cultural-heritage sensitivity buffer.

The former Pony Club precinct was discounted because it is within the 1:100 floodplain. Raised jumps there could affect flood levels in the surrounding area, and Melbourne Water would not accept that outcome.

The endorsed concept advances the contested reserve project, but does not complete its environmental or cultural-heritage processes. Those processes will continue as Council develops the design and prepares its planning permit application.