Moorabbin's long-delayed 2021 master plan has been pushed further out to September.
The master plan has been in abeyance since then Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Barnaby Joyce rejected Moorabbin Airport Corporation's (MAC) Preliminary Draft Master Plan in March 2022.
In June this year, current minister Catherine King sent a note to the Moorabbin Airport Community Aviation Consultation Group stating that MAC had withdrawn a Fresh Draft Master Plan (FDMP) submitted in March this year.
"On 16 June 2023 [MAC] wrote to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Hon. Catherine King MP seeking her permission to withdraw and resubmit the Moorabbin Airport fresh draft Master Plan 2021 [FDMP], " the note says.
"MAC advised that the proposed amendments, while minor in nature and only affecting a limited number of pages of the document, would provide better clarity on intended land-uses across the airport site."
MAC were given until 28 June to submit a revised FDMP, which pushed out the minister's 50-business-day deadline for a decision until 6 September.
The original PDMP envisaged non-aviation development across 44 hectares of land, leaving only 40 hectares for aviation support. That would have involved removing more of the western end of the northern apron for commercial development, demolishing aircraft movement area and forcing aviation businesses out of existing buildings.
In December 2022, MAC advised that the demolition would not go ahead under a new FDMP scheduled for submission in March 2023.
However, in April Minister King called for more information surrounding the community consultation on the FDMP, which reset the decision clock to 6 July.
If the final approval decision is given on 6 September, the master plan will have been in limbo since April 2021.