The following Request for a Report was passed unanimously on Wednesday night. Whilst a definite step forward, much will depend on the eventual report and the determination of councillors to follow through on changes to the planning scheme. We wait with bated breath!
Crs Sounness/Delahunty
That a report be prepared on the effectiveness of existing planning scheme tools addressing neighbourhood character, and consider the merits of a fresh publicly advertised scheme amendment, local policy and/or design guidelines to establish the preferred emerging neighbourhood character.
The MOTION was put and CARRIED unanimously.
Here’s the “discussion” –
SOUNNESS: Started by saying that there has been ‘some discussion’ about ‘where development is taking place’ and that ‘some parts’ of the planning scheme talk about ‘neighbourhood character’. Said that when applications come in he often hears the comments that this is ‘evidence of emerging neighbourhood character’ and that it should ‘be respected’. However, Sounness ‘isn’t so sure of what that emerging character is’. Thought that ‘council and the community’ should have ‘more involvement with that conversation’. Said he would ‘love to see’ a conversation about ‘height, density, form’. Acknowledged that there had been a lot of work done previously on neighbourhood character and that this was ‘best practice’.
DELAHUNTY: said that once councillors ‘get some more information’ then that ‘would be great’.
PILLING: stated that he was a ‘bit dubious about the results’ that ‘would come back’. Said the zones ‘were all about’ the height and that in trying ‘to be more prescriptive’ he wasn’t ‘sure that there are such tools’. Nevertheless, ‘more information is always good’. Said that ‘there’s a reason’ why Glen Eira hasn’t gone down the path of structure plans but he is ‘happy to support’ the call for more information.
PS: From ‘The Age’
High-rise buildings banned on strip shopping centres in Melbourne’s leafy east
Date: April 9, 2015 – 5:45PM
Clay Lucas
High-rise development has been all but banned along strip shopping centres in some of Melbourne’s wealthiest suburbs, after new laws were approved by the Andrews government.
Boroondara Council covers suburbs including Camberwell, Surrey Hills, Balwyn, Kew and Hawthorn.
On Thursday, the state government gazetted laws the council had requested that effectively remove the prospect of new buildings higher than three levels in most of its shopping strips.
The changes to the council’s planning scheme mean that, in all but a dozen locations across Boroondara’s 6000 hectares, development is capped at just over three levels.
The new rules include mandatory height limits of 11 metres in areas that are on tram and train lines, such as Camberwell and Surrey Hills.
Boroondara Mayor Coral Ross said that, in all, there were 31 neighbourhood shopping centres that now had new building heights capped.
She said the change would allow for medium-rise development, and would mean residents and developers had certainty about what was allowed.
“The primary focus,” she said, for the planning rule changes, “was to balance the need to provide growth opportunities while at the same time maintaining the neighbourhood shopping centre scale”.
An independent government planning panel formed in 2013 considered the proposal to prevent high-rise development put forward by Boroondara.
It found last year that, while rules on heights should be applied in neighbourhood shopping centres, there should be the possibility of buildings going higher and that mandatory height limits should not be used.
The limits to height in these suburbs stands in contrast to many other suburbs of Melbourne where high-rise towers are proposed or being developed.
In the most recent case in suburban Melbourne, Banyule Council will next Monday decide whether to approve a 26-level tower proposed for Heidelberg.
Planner Colleen Peterson has been vocal over the past two years on the push by Melbourne’s inner eastern councils, including Boroondara, to stop higher-density housing.
New zones introduced by the Napthine government prevented high-rise in many residential areas of Melbourne’s inner eastern suburbs.
Ms Peterson said that the latest changes for Boroondara meant anything above three levels would now largely be stopped at many of Boroondara’s busy shopping strips as well.
Ms Peterson said 80 per cent of Boroondara had already been “locked away from development” after changes to residential zones last year.
“Now, what limited chance there was for in-fill housing is being locked away even more tightly,” Ms Peterson said. “There are a lot of centres in Boroondara, particularly on tram and bus routes, that are suitable for higher forms of development – four or five storeys,” she said.
“We are not talking about 27-storey towers,” she said, “and the opportunity to increase density along public transport corridors has been undermined.”
Glen Eira Debates 
April 10, 2015 at 11:00 AM
Well done Boroondara. We at Glen Eira must immediately follow and save our Commercial areas from the greedy hands of certain developers who worship the almighty dollar and care little for anything else. Save our Suburb. The traffic situation in our suburb is incredible and many intersections are at times impassible. Solve the traffic problem before increasing the population. As for tall buildings in Shopping Centres what about sunlight. What about parking problems which are spreading like cancer given greater development. WAKE UP GLEN EIRA. We need Councillors that listen to their electorate and fight for us.
April 10, 2015 at 7:46 PM
Conspirocy1949 You must be joking. Yes, we need Councillors that represent their residents. Before they WAKE UP they will be kicked in their backside come next council’s election in 2015. Any good guesses?
April 10, 2015 at 11:01 AM
Good news for Boroondara. They’ve succeeded in undermining the idea that commercial zoned or mixed use buildings can be any height – particularly in neighbourhood centres. I trust our councillors are taking note and will be doing likewise?
April 10, 2015 at 11:38 AM
Sounness’s and Delahunty’s call for a report is welcome and very much overdue. I think it shows again how the introduction of the new zones was not thought through properly but rushed through as quickly as possible. Now all the problems are showing up and residents are feeling the results.
I’m not anticipating that the resulting report will say anything of value or promote any radical changes to the planning scheme. That isn’t part of Glen Eira’s planning history. Newton and his allies are content to leave things as they are and to facilitate as much development as possible. Neighbourhood character and the absence of preferred neighbourhood character statements for housing diversity has been mentioned in many vcat decisions going back years and years and nothing has been done to change anything. It’s not something new that the planning department or councillors haven’t been aware of. They have sat back and twiddled their thumbs. Maybe things will change now given the uproar by residents and the unsustainable explosion of inappropriate development everywhere. If I’m judging by the comments from Pilling it will be an uphill battle to initiate anything whilst he remains as councillor and this applies to many of the others too.
April 10, 2015 at 1:53 PM
Let’s wait and see what the report says first off. Mind, amendments take forever so nothing is likely to change for at least a year. That gives developers plenty of time to do their dirty work.
April 10, 2015 at 4:57 PM
Bull, Sounnous seems to votes everything through without a care for anything, including N’hood character, let alone the residents. He is 100% on the developers side of the fence. Although none of them would have voted for him. Lets see if he has the gall to run again for a councillor.
April 10, 2015 at 7:14 PM
Still waiting for the lobo report on the zones.rome built quicker.
April 10, 2015 at 7:39 PM
Does anyone know when the report was asked on zones/number of dwellings?
April 10, 2015 at 7:47 PM
Lobo’s Request for a Report occurred two council meetings ago – ie 24th February.
April 14, 2015 at 10:51 AM
I am a little bit confused. Have boroondara changed the laws or have they just asked for a report to be prepared? I have not been able to find details of this change anywhere.