Set down for tomorrow – 21st August – under ‘Mediation’!
Room 2.6 – Member S. Cimino
1:30 PM P930/2014 BPG Caulfield Village P/L v Glen Eira CC
Caulfield Mixed Use Area – Land bound by Kambrook Road, Station Street and Normanby Road, Caulfield
PS: for a VCAT ‘Fact Sheet’ explaining mediation, see – https://www.vcat.vic.gov.au/system/files/mediation_factsheet.pdf
We note:
- the secrecy involved
- question whether any potential ‘outcome’ is sanctioned by councillors/Council or are ‘compromises’ to be the exclusive task of officers?
- Why has there been no public announcement of this ‘mediation’?
- What, if any, private deals have already been arranged? (forgive our cynicism!)
Glen Eira Debates 
August 22, 2014 at 4:01 PM
My own experience of Mediation is that VCAT can make it both compulsory and useless. If an applicant doesn’t want to comply with policies and standards because they’re desperate to squeeze more dwellings in, or refuses to supply the information they’re supposed to supply in support of their application, there isn’t much room for mediation—other than to waste people’s time to the point they roll over so as to get their life back.
As in so many Council activities, there is a problem with transparency in how Council conducts itself concerning planning applications. They don’t publish detailed reasons for their decisions for example. When Council doesn’t accept the officer recommendation as is, there’s an additional problem with the way staff may choose to represent the reasons for Council’s decision to the Tribunal. It doesn’t help if Council itself is unclear about what its policies are and whether it is making a principled decision based on policy or merely pandering to one segment of the community.
August 22, 2014 at 6:39 PM
councillors voted for bigger balconies and more car parking. If the mrc or probuild or whoever go for this it will involve major changes to planning and I don’t see them willing to do this. It could also mean fewer apartments and that’s for sure not in their plans. I would love to be a fly on the wall and watch now hard our planners fight for what was voted on. I’d bet my life that what they dished up was token and nothing more. If they are fair dinkum then this has to go to a full hearing but I reckon it wont.
August 23, 2014 at 6:34 AM
The outcome will be the MRC gets most of what it wants (including all the major issues) and Council will get some piddling concession.
All residents will get the spin about skillfully Council handled the negotiations.