A massive $4.5 million Hindu temple planned for the quiet town of Pearcedale on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula will not go ahead after the proposal was rejected at a tribunal.
Locals spent three years fighting the application by non-profit Hindu organisation Melbourne Ayyappa Seva Sangam (MASS) for the temple, which was to include multiple structures including an extensive podium with temple and prayer rooms, a double story food hall, bathing pool, 22 toilets, light and bell towers and parking for 60 cars.
But this week they were celebrating after the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) made its final ruling, finding the temple was incompatible with the purpose and protections of Mornington Peninsula’s Green Wedge Zone.
VCAT ruled that the temple was “a prominent and discordant built form” that was out of place in the Green Wedge.
“The proposed development would stand in marked contrast with its surrounds… Its religious and cultural expression and symbolic architecture bear no resemblance or contextual relationship to existing structures in the locality or the rural landscape,” the ruling sad.
Concerned local residents formed the Peninsula Green Wedge Protection Group (PGWPG) to fight the proposal, and founder Craig Gobbi said the outcome was a win for conservationism.
“This ecologically significant parcel of Green Wedge land is saved. We couldn’t have done it without the community’s incredible support and the Council’s backing throughout the VCAT process,” he said.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Councillor Kate Roper told STPL News: “We are really pleased that the panel listened to the concerns of the council and neighbours in wanting to protect the green wedge from inappropriate development.”
The site is in one of Melbourne’s green wedge zones, which were legislated in 2002 to preserve the countryside on the city’s outskirts by limiting urban development, and is one of more than a dozen place of worship planning requests filed in recent years, including Sikh and Buddhist temples, mosques and Islamic schools.
According to the 2021 Census, there are just 368 Hindus in the Mornington Peninsula Shire – 0.2% of the population – and in October last year Mornington Peninsula Council unanimously rejected the proposal, but it has now been referred to VCAT to gain approval.
