When street after street has been given the green light for major redevelopment via the imposition of the new zones, with no thought to flow on effects, then no one is safe – not even those who are supposed to be ‘protected’ in Neighbourhood Residential Zones (NRZ). Bent and Mavho Streets in Bentleigh are the perfect example of poor planning. Sections of these narrow, small streets are multi zoned – from Residential Growth Zone, General Residential Zone, to a handful of houses in the NRZ.
Another application for a 4 storey and 25 apartments has gone in for Mavho – with the normal car parking waiver request. What is most telling however is how those residents living in Mavho, and in the NRZ sections are reacting. They are getting out as quickly as they can and hoping to at least break even. The future is writ large for them and for such streets. They clearly do not want to live surrounded by such density, such traffic chaos, and the loss of all amenities. They are also ‘doubling up’ and selling! This is the first ‘consolidated lot’ that we are aware of from residents living in Neighbourhood Residential Zones! What will happen here should be fascinating since there is no size limit on subdivision under the wisdom of this council. Will this NRZ stretch of Mavho, now become a defacto RGZ, or even GRZ, especially since it is a relatively large block of land?
Bent Street of course is already gone. More applications are flowing in by the day and more properties are being sold.
Other sales are imminent in Vickery and Bendigo Ave – some with heritage overlays. That does not matter of course!
Residents should start asking themselves and their non-representatives –
- Does Council really care about the destruction of street after street? Or, is this all grist to the mill of pro development, more rates?
- What is ‘sustainable’ as we’ve previously asked? What are the actual figures? What are the costs? Who will pay and how much?
- How many streets is this council prepared to ‘sacrifice’ without lifting a finger to try and ameliorate the damage it has wrought?
PS: THE ROT HAS STARTED FOR BENDIGO AVENUE. HERE’S ANOTHER SELL UP RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO THE AD FEATURED ABOVE.
PPS: HERE’S ANOTHER RESIDENT IN THE NRZ ZONE OF BENT STREET GETTING OUT ASAP!
Glen Eira Debates 
February 22, 2015 at 11:30 AM
Council has an explicit policy to discourage this exact scenario: “Ensure that the existing neighbourhood character and subdivision pattern are maintained by discouraging the consolidation of sites”. What it doesn’t have is a policy about when to choose to ignore its policies. Council refused to explain why it rejected its own policies at 487 Murrumbeena Rd for example. Council’s policies are inconsistent and incoherent—that is just one of the legacies of the Akehurst/Newton years.
February 22, 2015 at 3:02 PM
Clause 22.05 states –
Encourage site consolidation and redevelopment to support increased development densities
Site consolidation to facilitate increased densities be encouraged
Site consolidation to facilitate increased densities in Ross Street be encouraged
Naturally, the above quotes only apply to Housing Diversity areas – the sacrificial lamb to the grand scheme!
The extract cited by Reprobate pertains to Minimal Change.
February 22, 2015 at 12:06 PM
are these the same idiot residents that have been voting in pro-development councillors for decades, well, well! whose getting what they deserve
February 22, 2015 at 5:22 PM
Thing is most residents wouldn’t know who there councils are let alone what they stand for. The ignorance and or ambivalence is what the Councillors who keep being elected trade on.
There are some, like Cr Pilling, who are elected on a platform of change including openness, transparency and accountability who find it far easier to become fellow travellers.No wonder politicians come in just in front of used car sales people in all the polls.
February 23, 2015 at 12:04 PM
Nah, below car salesmen
February 22, 2015 at 5:58 PM
Pilling did a 180, i think the 90 grand to become mayor (MODERATORS: rest of sentence deleted)
February 22, 2015 at 7:01 PM
Only the most naive, or silly, would continue to swallow council’s line about development pre and post the introduction of the new zones. The extent of grz and rgz and the vulnerability of large sites in the nrz areas is an open invitation to speculators and their friends.
I don’t blame the Mavho street people for trying to sell up and leave. They have had a glimpse of the future and they don’t like it. Many others have already done the same or would be contemplating doing the same. One side effect of the zones is to force people out of their homes. It is that simple. Council would not care one iota since this is what they prefer. Land bought up for medium and high rise. That is the plan and it is currently working a treat. The casualties are the long term residents. That as reprobate has said before is the long term legacy of Newton and Akehurst and the entire planning department. It exists because councillors have allowed it to exist and perform in this manner.
February 23, 2015 at 8:03 AM
Watch everyone leaving when they get started good and proper on the racecourse stuff and this will go on for the next 20 years.
February 23, 2015 at 5:27 PM
Does anyone know what the acceptable traffic count should be for a local street and not a main road? I’m asking because if Bent Street get another 130 new dwellings and most people would have at least one car what this does to any traffic counts and management.
February 24, 2015 at 1:23 PM
A general guide can be found in Clause 56.06 Standard C21 Table C1 “Design of roads and neighbourhood streets”. For an access road like Bent St, probably Council’s traffic engineers use a figure of around 2000-3000 vpd. So often though, Council doesn’t take into account bottlenecks that constrain throughput. Nor does it consider the number of dwellings to be served by the access road [which isn’t supposed to provide a through traffic function] or the distance to a Collector or Link road.
February 24, 2015 at 1:32 PM
The following link from Port Phillip provides information –
http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/managing_traffic.htm
One paragraph in particular is of interest given the number of speed humps that are mushrooming in all local streets –
“Speed humps are no longer considered an effective traffic management treatment as these only slow vehicles at particular points. They also create noise and air pollutions which negatively affect the amenity of local residents.”