Sunday’s Herald Sun featured a two page spread on the C60 development. Below are edited highlights from the story. Author –  Graeme Hammond.

“For Mr Curry and his partner, it (housing developments) will mean vacant land behind their house – cleared of homes more than 10 years ago after they were bought by the racing club – will be occupied by 270 new properties, including six-storey residential blocks. There are still no drawings of how the neighbourhood skyline will change, but he can guess.

“This development will put 2500 people at my back door,” Mr Currey said. “it’s an incredibly intense concentration of retail, commercial and residential building and I’ll look out the back and see every one of them.”

He said the centre would dramatically increase traffic congestion in Kambrook Rd and the surrounding streets.

“The beauty of this area is that within 15 minutes’ drive we have Chadstone Shopping Centre, St Kilda, Glen Huntly Rd and Glenferrie Rd,” Mr Curry said. “The area is already well catered for by retail. We don’t need this. It is physically and visually wrong here. I’m not against development, but it has to be reasonable and practical. With every decision our council makes, they show they do not listen to residents and don’t care. We voted them in, but they are not representing us.”

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“What’s good enough for the Meblourne Racing Club should be good enough for everyone, budding entrepreneur Noam Rosen says. Mr Rosen supports high-rise development in suburban areas and considers the Caulfield area as ideally placed to become a residential and business hub, capable of housing many more people. But he said: “If I wanted to demolish this house and build a six-storey complex I think I’d be knocked back Why did the Melbourne Racing Club get approval? There should be a level playing field so everyone has the chance to do sensible property development”.

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She (Mary Healy) said the (MRC) plans bore little resemblance to the original 1996 concept of Caulfield Village. “It just keeps growing. We’ll have another 10,000 people working and shopping here, but they’re providing only 2000 parking spotes,” she said. Mrs Healy said Camden ward residents had elected councillors opposed to the project, but Glen Eira council had ignored their views and few councillors had attended a state planning panel’s six-day set of hearings. “It’s one of the biggest planning decision ever made in the state, but they showed no interest,” she said. “They have effectively disenfranchised the voters.” 

PS: A copy of the article has been uploaded HERE