GERA has organised a Community Forum entitled: Overdevelopment – Coming to you soon!
Guest speakers are councillors from the municipalities of Port Phillip and Kingston (Serge Thomann and Rosemary West) so this should give Glen Eira residents a good insight into how these neighbouring councils approach, and ‘solve’, some of the problems associated with over development. It will be interesting to see what these councils do in contrast to what Glen Eira doesn’t do but is capable of doing if only the will was there! We believe there will be plenty of opportunity for Q & A sessions.
So, come one, come all, and learn about planning, the future of your street, and what can be done to halt rampant overdevelopment.
Full details are on the GERA website (http://geresidents.wordpress.com), but FYI the arrangements are:
DATE: 15th March
TIME: 7.30 (drinks & nibbles at 7)
VENUE: The Bentleigh Club, Yawla St., Bentleigh.
ENTRY: Members free. Non members – gold coin donation.
Glen Eira Debates 
March 7, 2012 at 1:46 PM
Maybe ypu can ask Serge the thinking behind the Port Phillip Council paying for the funerals of all the aboriginal people living in his City.
March 7, 2012 at 1:54 PM
Heck no! A much better question is how they got rid of their CEO!
March 7, 2012 at 3:45 PM
OK. That to.
March 7, 2012 at 6:24 PM
Gera doesn’t allow comments on its site, so I hope they read this here. I just want to congratulate them for organising this event. It’s about time that residents were given a true reflection of what is going on elsewhere and how other communities cope. I’m looking forward to learning a lot about planning and what needs to be done.
March 7, 2012 at 10:02 PM
I second your comment – as a relatively new resident it didn’t take long to tire of Council’s version of planning (i.e. if a developer wants plonk a multi storey building anyway then we’ll get more rates and so what if the residents complain).
March 8, 2012 at 8:12 AM
In fact the Council does not always get more rates. Theoretically your rates could get cheaper with more development. Each year the Council works out how much they need to spend for the next year. Budget. They then divide that amount by the number of ratepayers. That is simplified a bit. They do not simply count what they will collect then go about spending it. I am not puting a case for more development simply explaining how Council rates work. Most people have the same idea as you. If they were able to collect more rates based on development I can imagine some cash strapped Councils “developing” their way out of the red. That would be interesting.
March 8, 2012 at 10:07 AM
on revenue for the council can someone answer this question. Who is the car park on the corner of Queens and Normandy Road owned by. Isnt this crown land should we be entitled to something or is this all for the MRC. Also all these silly things the hold there like food and wine and caravan at the moment does the community benefit in anyway ( I know we definitely suffer from it)? The MRC pay reduced rates? Why? They are a commercial enterprise. They have such large percentage of the land in Glen Eira. If this was housing (I definitely dont want that) what kind of rates would be paid on that? On a side note I saw that on a real estate survey Caulfield East was counted as an area with very low tree count. This is because 80% of the land is taken up by a racecourse with next to no trees.
March 8, 2012 at 2:06 PM
You are right about the car park. It is Crown Land and the MRC lease it of the Trust. When the lease expires you should put in an offer. You would do quite well. Keep in mind the MRC need the money to help pay for the committee to go on overseas trips to the Middle East. You would make a killing during the Spring Carnival renting it out to the MRC where they put up the sponsers tents. bad luck for the students during that week. They are probably the biggest ratepayer in the City of Glen Eira.
March 9, 2012 at 9:52 AM
interesting sign I saw on caulfield Racecourse last night. joggers – no running on inner rail by order of Melbourne Racing Club. Would MRC have the right to set such a rule or are they just chancing there arm. Is this the responsibility of the Caulfield Racecourse Trust