Corporate News

“Dumber than dumb.”

Harsh words, but they embody the frustration of developers dealing with local government. They say city bureaucrats are too risk averse, with future liability and maintenance worries overriding common-sense.

Take trees. Some greenfield new estates are typecast as too stark, lacking greenery and character.

Little known is that same-size-fits all urban standards and guidelines often stifle innovation and scope.

The result: boring! Instead, those delivering much-needed new housing in regional areas contend flexibility and variation should be allowed to perpetuate the characteristics and individuality of regional areas that attract people in the first instance.

So, it is encouraging the City of Greater Geelong has been acknowledged, for the fourth consecutive year, for managing and expanding our “urban forest” of an estimated 200,000 trees across streets, parks and public land.

It’s calculated they absorb 70 tonnes of air pollution annually.

Therein lies a contradiction, however. Developers of new estates around Geelong want to boost the tree count by double-plantings along nature strips. The bureaucrats say no, purportedly because of future insurance/maintenance issues.

Villawood’s Rory Costelloe is far from impressed, believing this thinking is counter-productive to limiting the heat island effect and implementing measures to reduce our carbon footprint. Many councils, he says, see trees as a liability on nature strips while environmentalists and planners consider them assets, with double-planting in new developments and “refitting” old suburbs hugely beneficial.

Up the highway, Wyndham City has authorised a groundbreaking trial that could transform its landscape. With one of the lowest tree populations in Victoria, Wyndham and Villawood are testing tree suitability to local conditions to boost both numbers and diversity of its tree canopy.

Tree planting is not the only bone of contention in our neck of the woods, however. It seems bureaucracy also is blocking innovative parks and adventure-type playgrounds, again because of insurance liabilities and maintenance.

A peeved Costelloe went public on the issue recently, calling Geelong council killjoys for rejecting drinking fountains (cost), goalposts (wearing out the grass) and bike ramps (litigation). Surely it is better to encourage kids to play outdoors rather than being glued to devices.

Today, more rational, innovative decision-making and less conservative thinking is imperative in new developments if they are to incorporate the best elements of our established suburbs, particularly those with highly valued tree canopies.

Now that’s logical.

Originally published by Geelong Advertiser 15/05/2026