Community spirit fails to move church on proposed organic centre

FATHER Bob Maguire was so excited about the plan to build a neighbourhood community centre, complete with a cafe and organic food shop, next to his South Melbourne church, that he forgot to tell his boss.

And the Catholic Church doesn't take kindly to being left out of the loop.

When it heard about the outspoken radio presenter's plans, the archdiocese lodged an objection with the City of Port Phillip to block the centre on the grounds that as the landowner it should have been consulted. 

Several local residents have also objected, citing fears that the centre could become a venue for all-night rave parties.

 

The City of Port Phillip has received 25 objections to the South Melbourne Commons project - a joint venture between Friends of the Earth and the Father Bob Maguire Foundation.

Port Phillip mayor Rachel Powning said the objections to the centre, adjacent to the St Peter and Paul's Catholic Church, were mainly about car parking issues and the ''inappropriate'' location in the residential zone for commercial enterprises.

Council will make its decision next month or in April.

Famous for not mincing his words, Father Bob said he had become increasingly frustrated at the delays since the application for the project was submitted to council in August. 

''It's dragging on and on and on,'' he said.

''The problem is I've got a limited life here according to headquarters [the archdiocese] and I'm supposed to try to make sure these things are in place before headquarters has its wicked, wilful, wanton way.''

Archdiocese spokesman James O'Farrell said Friends of the Earth applied for a planning permit without informing the archdiocese or seeking its consent. 

When the archdiocese found out about the application, it wrote to Friends of the Earth and the council seeking details and asked that the application be suspended. 

The archdiocese was now negotiating with Friends of the Earth to lease the site, Mr O'Farrell said.

Under the plan, the South Melbourne Commons is to be housed at the site of the heritage-listed Galilee School. 

The centre will share the area with the new Southport Community Housing project - 45 public housing apartments.

The community centre will include a large organic grocery co-operative, a community cafe that will train youth to work in the hospitality sector and develop programs to feed the disadvantaged, a weekly eco market, community gardens and parklands and a child-minding service and playgrounds.

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