OCEAN GROVE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION Inc – SUBMITTER #067
SUBMISSION TO THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Thank you for the opportunity to provide a submission to The Committee.
WHO DO WE REPRESENT
1. The Ocean Grove Community Association’s membership model has been progressively moving to a hybrid model combining social media based free membership with conventional paid membership for those that chose to pay the small once off fee. This hybrid model better reflects current community trends with the high usage of social media communication by many people in the community.
2. Our membership base is 2,9281 followers on social media and 125 paid membership.
3. In addition to our community membership reach, we have been running an online petition – online because of the Covid-19 limitations. This petition advocates for the retention of the current Ocean Grove Settlement Boundary as reflected in the City of Greater Geelong Settlement Strategy.
4. This petition has 8,417 2 – which we believe demonstrates a clear and loud statement of the community’s desire. All of these people have taken the time to read our online flyer and have decided to sign this petition.
5. The electronic petition, through change.org, was launched on 26 November 2019 and this subsequently allowed people to record their support while maintaining the Covid 19 physical contact restrictions that commence in early 2020. The graphic in the petition was taken from Ocean Grove Structure Plan. The petition highlighted “Developers want the land to the west of Grubb Road, the land east of Banks Road and the strip of land to the north between the current Oakdene housing development and the Bellarine Highway to be included in the Ocean Grove Town Settlement Boundary”.
6. The poster (a copy is included as an attachment to this submission) was produced in January 2020 and was used as a letter box drop across Ocean Grove supported by emails and displaying the poster by some Ocean Grove business. A simplified graphic was used 1 Correct as at 9 May 2022 2 Correct as at 16 May 2022 Page 2 of 13 Submitter # 067 – Ocean Grove Community Association in the poster. A second letter drop of the poster was undertaken in April 2022. In the second letter box drop we used the same poster for consistency of messaging. The poster QR code was linked the Change.org petition which featured the more detailed graphic.
7. In all our efforts and messaging to engage with the community at large the key focus was and continues to be the major risk on the significant landscapes by residential development outside the Ocean Grove Settlement Boundary, in particular:
a. to the west of Grubb Road into the attractive backdrop to the town and as a settlement break with Wallington,
b. into the non-urban break north of Ocean Grove to the Bellarine Highway, and
c. into the open rolling the farm land east of Banks Road