This post is entirely speculative. Given the information that we have, we are simply exploring a couple of possible scenarios and wishing to alert the public to what may be a most unfortunate outcome in regard to the C60 Panel Report.
The report was handed down in July 2010. Thus far nothing has been forthcoming from officers or council. The next council meeting is set for November 3rd. That is OVER 60 days that council has had to deliberate and present their recommendations. The law requires a response in 60 days. It therefore seems that Council may not have met its legal obligations thus allowing the developer to go straight to VCAT. This has already happened with the Bay Rd development in Bayside.
So the questions come thick and fast:
- Will the developer stand on his rights even if the C60 report is on the next council agenda?
- Is this a deliberate ploy by council to wipe its hands of any decision making and again say it’s all VCAT’s fault?
- Are councillors fully aware of these time limits? If so, what have they done about it?
Our suspicions are further raised when we read the following paragraph that is on the MRC Caulfield Village website:
“Overall the submissions made to the Panel recommended Caulfield Village as a positive response to Melbourne’s expanding population and demand for services close to public transport.
Council’s closing statement described Caulfield Village as “a reasonable response to the opportunities and constraints afforded by the land and the area” and that “a development of the magnitude proposed has the capacity to bring about significant public realm benefits and contribute significantly to the achievement of community ‘betterment’ leading to a clear net community benefit”.
Glen Eira Debates 
October 18, 2010 at 5:58 PM
From today’s Age newspaper –
Melbourne will be a better city if residents have a say in planning: report Jason Dowling
October 18, 2010 – 12:17PM
Give residents a say in planning and Melbourne will be a better city for it.
That is the conclusion of a new report released today that will make welcome reading to many Melbourne residents feeling disconnected from current planning decisions.
The report by the Grattan Institute looked at eight successful global cities that were ”reasonably comparable” to Australian cities and concluded ”residents must be involved in decisions”.
Advertisement: Story continues below ”Those cities that made tough choices and saw them through had early, genuine, sophisticated and deep public engagement. This level of engagement is an order of magnitude different from what happens in Australia today,” the report found.
An increase in ministerial planning interventions and delays at Victoria’s planning tribunal and at council level has led to calls from community groups and industry for reform of Victoria’s planning process.
Some have called for a new metropolitan planning authority.
But today’s report, Cities: who decides?, finds that engaging the public in planning and decision making was far more important than creating a new planning authority.
The Institute’s Jane-Frances Kelly said no cure-all would be found in changing structures.
“Nor, for that matter is resident engagement. But as we try to manage growth — and make effective choices that actually stick — our best bet is go give city-dwellers a real say,” Ms Kelly said.
She said one researcher from Portland in the US, contrasted the Portland approach to engagement to that in the UK and Australia, where ”there seems to be a culture that consultation is about telling people what the planners have decided”.
Ms Kelly said the way ”consultation” was conducted in Australia was not engagement with the public.
The report found successful cities often had a ”trigger moment” that generated the required political will for change in the approach to planning.
”I can imagine that the anxiety around population growth that there is in Australia could be the trigger,” Ms Kelly said.
The report also found successful cities had a consistent strategic direction in planning across political cycles.
The cities examined in the report were Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Austin, Dublin and Copenhagen.
Municipal Association of Victoria president Bill McArthur said involving local communities in planning decisions made implementation easier.
“Communities are well placed to provide input into the development of local neighbourhoods and the long term vision for maintaining Victoria’s much-desired liveability qualities,” he said.
“Democratic input rights should be protected not diluted in preference of fast decisions, which can’t be undone and may not be the best long-term solutions,” Mr McArthur said.
October 18, 2010 at 7:16 PM
Common sense would suggest that we should trial what the MRC are wanting to do. Lets run next years Caulfield Cup without the use of the current carparks which are in the development proposal and then witness the results. I guess the focus will be on the true objective of the MRC to once again swing the Brumby government into gifting them the remaining racetrack reserve to covert to even more “Social housing” (aka housing commission) and move the Caulfield Cup to Sandown.