They said the tranquil atmosphere of the coastal villages would be disrupted by impending urban growth.

Chairwoman of the Coastal Village Community Building Initiative (CBI) Sharon Mitchell said urban growth would gradually encroach on coastal villages such as Tooradin and Blind Bight.

“It will start to impact on Tooradin and gradually creep in. It’s about what is left of the coastal villages. We won’t have anything left,” Ms Mitchell said.

“We want a proper plan about how the whole area will be managed and so we can still retain what we’ve got without having it continually eroded away.”

As reported in the News last week, the State Government has earmarked a 5,560 hectare area in the south-east, which includes ‘green wedges’ in the Clyde and Five Ways areas, to extend the UGB.

The parcel of land, which is designated an “investigation area” at this stage, would be used to accommodate about 18,000 new homes for Melbourne’s growing population.

While the coastal villages were not part of the investigation area, Ms Mitchell said it was only a matter of time before they would be affected.

“If we don’t stop them (State Government) now, I just don’t know what’s going to happen … we need to halt the process as much as we can.

“People who bought homes down here did so becausethat’s how they wanted to live. The coastal villageatmosphere is what they wanted.”

Jane Varkulevicius of CBI said the State Government was guilty of “blind subdivision”.

“They will be cutting up good land with decent rainfall.”

The closing date for the first submission process is 20 February. A second public submissions period will be held from April to May.