The following table illustrates like nothing else can, exactly what is happening throughout metropolitan Melbourne, and particularly in Glen Eira. This council can now adopt the mantle of ‘Leggo Land of the South’. The zones have been in for 15 months. Council admits to 1713 net new dwellings in the last financial year. Thus far (ie 4 months) another 1002 new dwellings have received permits. (Source: Planning Permit Activity – http://www.dtpli.vic.gov.au/planning/planning-applications/planning-permit-activity-in-victoria)
Prior to the introduction of the new zones, council’s ‘average’ number of new dwellings per year was stated as roughly 500 to 600. This figure has now tripled! By the end of the current financial year, if this trend continues, then residents should look forward to over 3000 new dwellings in one year! And yet, we are still assailed with the nonsense that this has got absolutely nothing to do with the introduction of the new zones and the open arms approach to development by Glen Eira.
On July 1st 2014, the new zones came in everywhere. If councils had not as yet finalised their amendments, then the General Residential Zones were applied automatically to all areas previously zones Residential. The Age has run articles on how political the process has been, when western suburb and/or Labor dominated municipalities had their amendments knocked back by the Minister’s Standing Residential Zones Committee. Darebin, Moreland, and Kingston were the ‘victims’ of this process. Darebin and Moreland are still awaiting approval of their amendments. The upshot is that these two councils have now huge swathes of their municipalities zoned as General Residential Zones instead of Neighbourhood Residential Zones as they intended. It is no coincidence that they are the only two councils whose net new dwellings surpass Glen Eira’s.
There are other concerns too. Of these 1002 net new dwellings we have to ask:
- How many are one bedroom units?
- How many car parking spots have been waived?
- How many of these permits have been resubmitted for bigger, higher, larger developments?
- How many extensions has council handed out (practically willy-nilly)?
- How many trees remain on any of these lots?
- How many ‘standards’ have been overlooked per application?
- What has council done about the cumulative impact for individual streets? Have they even bothered to consider any of this?
- How much will ratepayers have to cough up to pay for the requisite improvements in drainage since developers won’t have to pay a cent since this benevolent council dropped its levy from the planning scheme?
Residents deserve answers to each and every one of these questions. The bigger question is whether councillors will dare to even ask them!
November 19, 2014 at 11:12 AM
A terrific post. It has really opened up my eyes to what is going on in Glen Eira. I think every resident should be worried about this and what the results are going to be for traffic and the ruin of street after street. The zones aren’t serving people. They are there for developes to make a quick profit and for council to get more rates.
November 19, 2014 at 12:05 PM
Councillors might ask all they like but will they get decent, honest, and quantifiable answers in writing. I’d bet a squillion that they they won’t.
November 19, 2014 at 12:44 PM
State election time is where ordinary citizen has a means to sens a message by voting for the candidate that has your views and is prepared to push for it. I had a look at the SOS website for their Candidates Survey on planning issues. In section 10 is a summary of areas for planning reform. I filled in for myself just to see what I would like. The result, with modified approach is shown below. Do you agree and what are your priorities?
SOS Section 10 – How important are the following areas of reform to you?
Issue Score
Long term planning by an Independent Authority 3
Stronger protection of Green Wedges and open space 3
Employment closer to where people live 2
Diverse and affordable housing 2
Improved public transport network 3
Planning to cope with the impact of climate Change 2
Giving greater weight to local policy and Amenity 2
Minimum mandatory planning controls for Councils
and VCAT, such as Rescode and Overlay requirements 3
Improved enforcement of planning permits 3
Heritage protection 1
Limiting the Minister’s call-in powers 2
Governance to protect integrity and Transparency 3
Banning political donations from developers 3
Stop policies pushing unlimited growth 3
Reverse deregulation and privatisation of planning 2
Score Values:
3=>very important; 2=>important; 1=>not very important 0=>not at all important
Total points = 37 Possible points from 0 to 45
Most important 4 issues are:
• Stop policies pushing unlimited growth;
• Governance to protect integrity and Transparency;
• Long term planning by Independent Authority;
• Minimum mandatory planning controls for Councils and VCAT.
November 19, 2014 at 2:27 PM
The numbers for Glen Eira are frightening and I’m pretty sure that they don’t even include the extra 2000 plus that will go into the Caulfield Village because part of this was approved a lot earlier in the year. Even if only 600 of these 1000 each have a car that would make it about another two thousand cars needing to be parked and they will probably end up on streets since stackers are a nightmare to use.
All in all, the table shows how horrendous the impacts of all this new development is likely to be in Glen Eira. Bayside can get rid of its growth zones but Glen Eira has embraced this with open arms by the looks of things.
November 19, 2014 at 4:58 PM
Glen Eira – is going, going, gone. The developments in the streets will rip the suburbs. Are we still re-electing the same State Government on 29 November?