The Planning Scheme Review of early August 2010 promised much, but thus far has delivered very little – apart from Amendment after Amendment which rezones land making it available for residential development – without Structure Planning of course! That has clearly been the priority of this council rather than all the other fundamental issues that were earmarked for analysis, improvement and adoption.
Whilst most of the promises were to be developed ‘internally’ according to the Action Plan, it doesn’t look like there has been much progress, if any at all. Many of the suggested ‘reviews’ are now long overdue so that Glen Eira is still dominated by planning that originated over a decade ago and is based on statistics that belong in a museum.
Two and a half years later we are still waiting for the release of the following reviews and policies:
- Review Housing and Residential Development Strategy
- Review Housing Diversity area policy to assess need to encourage three bedroom dwellings
- Prepare a new streamlined MSS for Council consideration and commence the amendment process
- Investigate need for new local policies (eg advertising signs, car parking)
- Consider parking precinct plans for Activity Centres
- complete an Activity Centres Review to update existing policy frameworks to provide greater direction within Activity Centres (short of Structure Plan detail).
- Pursue approval from State Government to increase the private open space requirement from 60m2 to 80m2 and consider tree protections outlined in the Environmental Sustainability Strategy
- Include a statement in the Heritage section of the MSS and local heritage policy about the importance of Aboriginal cultural heritage;
- Create a tourism section in the MSS that discusses the city and statewide importance of Glen Eira’s tourist sites such as the Melbourne Racing Club and Ripon Lea;
- Alter the ‘Transport’ section of the MSS to indicate the Principle Bicycle Network and bus routes on the transport framework plan
- Include the Melbourne @ 5 Million ‘employment corridor’ on the Strategic Framework Plan in the MSS.
- Integrate Environmental Sustainability, Street Tree, Transport, Bicycle, Ageing Strategies into the MSS.
- Review/Amend: Phoenix Precinct Policy & Heritage Policy
Glen Eira Debates 
December 9, 2012 at 10:28 AM
The statement “most of the promises were to be developed ‘internally” is yet another affirmation of this Councils comittment to community consultation
December 9, 2012 at 10:49 AM
Piecemeal planning all the time. Developers ring up and there’s a new amendment in place lickety split.
December 9, 2012 at 1:32 PM
As long as councillors sit there and accept everything that’s stuck under their noses by Newton and Akehurst and don’t even ask the right questions, Glen Eira will continue along its merry way of rolling out the red carpet for all developments and to hell with residential amenity, traffic congestion and open space. Without real structure plans and overall planning the city is becoming the calcutta of Melbourne – to quote Lobo.
December 9, 2012 at 7:13 PM
Forget asking the right question, I be happy with them just asking a question. What ever gets put before them is praised and heralded as a great step forward – then it’s all forgotten until the next time residents get restless. The cycle just keeps repeating.
December 9, 2012 at 5:06 PM
This is an interesting of ‘to do’ list, not yet done. I am sure that they can demonstrate a list of things they have done eg ‘reversal of mulch decision’. An observation of this list is that most of them depend on outsiders to make decisions first. ie can advocate but really cannot decide. This is like a deliberate strategy to suggest that they are going to do something knowing full well that it cannot happen. Of course, if it happens then they have suggested it in the first instance. The best one of that is the New Zones, which are similar to the ones Glen Eira had for 10 years. Glen Eira Council always opposed Structure Plans and they are not going to go that way now.
Glen Eira Debates is doing a fantastic job to point out deficiencies in Glen Eira. But we do need more that just one website to express dissatisfaction. We need to have an army of ‘activists’ demonstrating at every Council meeting their displeasure.
December 10, 2012 at 7:34 AM
Rates keep rising, staff numbers and costs keep rising, consulting costs keep rising yet services keep being cut back and key policies are not updated. What’s wrong with this picture?
December 10, 2012 at 10:17 PM
The Planning Scheme Review was just another of those statutory exercises Council is obliged to go through periodically without ever taking it seriously. The end product was disappointing as it rejected most of the feedback I heard the community give at the sessions organised. Part of the problem here is that Jeff Akehurst refuses to accept there are problems with GEPS that are of his own making. Some of the proposed subsequent reviews cover areas he simply refuses to countenance, and so naturally they haven’t been done. Glen Eira doesn’t do Structure Planning because Jeff doesn’t want to.
The entire planning process is an official joke. Nobody has to apply the Planning Scheme, not VCAT, not Council, not Council staff. There is no attempt to ensure fairness, despite it being one of the Objectives of planning in Victoria. There is very little attempt to ensure safety or a pleasant environment *for all Victorians*. There has been no attempt to provide housing diversity in each area of the municipality, or to ensure that there is not a loss of amenity in existing traditional residential areas. Council has no solutions to the traffic problems it is responsible for encouraging, through its ill-conceived Urban Village and Housing Diversity policies. It doesn’t require new developments to provide the employment necessary to match the increase in population, thereby guaranteeing more traffic and associated social problems. It consistently waives compliance with Rescode in Housing Diversity [sic] areas even when directly adjacent or opposite to single-storey dwellings.
And on top of all its failings, Jeff has the temerity to blame *us* for congestion in the planning system. The congestion is actually a symptom of the extent to which the planning system is a failure. The system rewards developer greed, and Council encourages developers to make ambit applications through Council’s preparedness to waive compliance with even the most basic of standards designed to protect amenity. There is no transparency in decision-making, very little reference to Council policy whether decisions are made by Council or under delegation, and absolutely no consistency. We have a mess in which all the participants who have contributed to the problem point at each other and say “its not my fault, its them”.
This isn’t good enough, periodic Planning Scheme Reviews are an opportunity to at least attempt to improve the situation, yet the previous Review was a failure. With so few (any?) of the subordinate Reviews delivered, its questionable whether the Strategic Planning department is worth the money invested in it.
December 10, 2012 at 10:35 PM
Akehurst and Newton might be all gung ho for rampant development but that doesn’t excuse the gang for supporting them to the hilt and letting them get away with it. They’ve had years and years to tell these overpaid incompetents to get their act together and start putting residents first. They haven’t had the guts to. Only when he knew he was getting out did Tang start even questioning a fraction of planning policy. Far too late. He should have spoken up in the previous 5 years he was on council. As for the rest of them they’re useless and gutless. The resolutions they passed in 2010 on the review tells everyone just how little they understand about planning and serving the community. They only serve Akehurst and Newton and the developers.