Walker Corp, Richo and controversial waterfront development …

CONTROVERSIAL developer Lang Walker will be asked to hand over private land for a state school in a move that could appease critics of one of Melbourne’s largest residential projects.

The Age has learned that the Government is advancing plans to build a junior campus for Alphington Primary School on a small section of the 16.5-hectare Amcor Paper Mill site beside the Yarra River.

Walker Corporation is currently in exclusive negotiations with Amcor to buy the site for more than $100 million in a private transaction.

Once the sale is finalised, the Government will ask to buy land on Parkview Crescent from Walker, a move that would boost Northcote MP Fiona Richardson’s campaign to stave off the Greens in next year’s state election.

The $1 billion redevelopment of the mill site into 2000 dwellings, a shopping centre and offices on the Yarra River has been an emotive issue in the electorate.

A particular hotspot has been the impact of development on the riverfront and its natural environment.

The Government raised further community ire when Planning Minister Justin Madden brushed aside Yarra Council to rezone the site to mixed use in April.

Mr Walker is the same developer who is redeveloping the controversial Kew Cottages site across the river from the mill.

The Victorian Ombudsman is investigating the Kew project after a parliamentary committee found lobbying by former Labor heavyweight Graham Richardson on behalf of Mr Walker and a $100,000 political donation by the company may have had an improper influence in the awarding of the contract.

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The Age