From yesterday’s Legislative Assembly sitting –
Glen Eira residential planning
Mr DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh)—I raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Planning. The action I seek is a commitment from the minister to visit Carnegie in the city of Glen Eira to see firsthand the impact of new dwellings on local residential areas. I further ask for the input of my local community to be considered in any future decision-making on Victorian planning matters.
Planning issues are generally very emotive for local communities, with many individual groups having input and/or being directly affected by the rules and regulations that are in place at any given time. This includes but is not limited to local residents, the local council, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and VicRoads as well as developers. Many areas within the city of Glen Eira have undergone significant change in recent years, including Carnegie and Ormond. While these changes are not unique in Melbourne, there is a great level of community feeling about planning my local area.
I have personally been contacted by numerous local residents expressing their concern about what they believe to be overdevelopment in the neighbourhood.
While I recognise that some certainty has been provided in the past for many residents, others have not been so fortunate and have been built out or are subject to living next to large buildings which have not been in keeping with the neighbourhood or which create an impact on local facilities like roads and parking.
Carnegie has had more than its fair share of high-rise development, and residents are now rightly saying enough is enough.
We all understand that there is a need for appropriate housing, and it makes sense that many new dwellings are located close to important infrastructure like train stations, tram routes and shopping areas. However, I believe there has to be an appropriate balance between satisfying the demand for new housing and limiting the negative impact on existing neighbourhoods. That balance needs to start with the local council, but the state government also has a crucial role to play. I look forward to a visit by the Minister for Planning to my community and encourage him to meet on site with relevant parties to enable a more comprehensive awareness of local concerns.
Responses
MrWYNNE (Minister for Planning)—I thank the member for Oakleigh for raising an adjournment matter in relation to residential zones. As we know, this was an initiative of the previous government and the previous Minister for Planning, who sought to put in place a framework for the way in which we deal with issues of population and where people will be housed going forward. This is the great challenge for governments.
Population projections suggest that we will have to house a further 100 000 people a year in Victoria, within both broader metropolitan accommodation and regional cities.
The most recent regional showcase, the Regional Victoria Living Expo held last week, was again another overwhelming success. People are voting with their feet and looking for opportunities for quality housing and lifestyle in regional Victoria. Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and the Latrobe Valley, because of their significantly upgraded public transport links and fast train networks, provide people with the ability to commute between their homes and Melbourne or, with flexibility of employment, to balance their employment and family lifestyles.
When we came to government it was clear that for residents of many municipalities the residential zones process left a bad taste in their mouths. People felt shut out of the process and the response to their legitimate concerns about how the zones were implemented was less than satisfactory. On coming to government I indicated that we would allow the residential zones process to complete its work and that the independent panel process would be completed, and that has now happened. I also indicated that we would let the dust settle a little, because many communities have been over-planned, and then in the second half of this year we would look at it again to see how the housing strategies that were put in place have been outcomes right across the metropolitan area, and there are opportunities for us to review this in an independent way and to learn from what was, in many respects, a flawed process because it did not take communities along with it. Ultimately communities have to be part of the conversation, and they will always be part of the conversation with a Labor government. I have the honour of being the Minister for Planning, and I will always consult with communities about how we take these challenges forward, because a collective effort is required for us to house 100 000 people every single year.
I welcome the contribution of the member for Oakleigh, and I will take up his invitation to talk to his community and to the council, and that will be part of my early consultative work in thinking through how to establish in the second half of this year a further independent process to review the residential zones. I welcome the member’s intervention tonight.
Glen Eira Debates 
May 6, 2015 at 10:05 AM
Last thing Newton and Hyams want is a fair dinkum review into how the zones came to be. That would show up the bastards good and proper
May 6, 2015 at 1:06 PM
Newton always walks away a free man, his cheers squad of sycophantic councillors are more than happy to take the fall
May 6, 2015 at 10:57 AM
How much confidence to place in Wynne’s comments about community input remains to be seen. Delaying a still to be defined “review” until later this year means that it will be at least another 18 to 24 months before any changes are likely to happen. This gives developers plenty of time to buy up more land and submit their outrageous proposals.
The onus should be on council to immediately start its own review and to draw up its amendments. I don’t expect this to happen though given the stonewalling since the zones came in. Newton and his merry band of followers have too much to lose and changes would be nothing less than an admission of error and inadequate planning in the first place. Plus, if a brake was to be put on development that would mean less revenue for council and the need to push up rates even higher.
May 6, 2015 at 11:58 AM
Newton Hyams Pilling Esakoff Okotel and Magee don’t want anything to change. They believe the crap that is dribbled out to them. The arch conservatists want market forces to operate and that means their liberal buddies and to hell with what happens to Carnegie, Bentleigh and even Elsternwick. Labor and the possibility of investigation is their nightmare. The real option for residents is to at least vote the majority of these neanderthals out next year. That’s how a decent council could be created.
May 6, 2015 at 1:09 PM
Sorry to disappoint, you will never get a decent council in GE, generally the residents get what they deserve for being such middle class money hungry deadheads.
May 6, 2015 at 3:46 PM
Another lame effort from Richard Wynne. People “felt shut out of the process” because they WERE shut out of the process. GECC has documented that in its Minutes. There has never been consultation over what the amenity standards should be for each area, and no mandate has been given to Council to waive compliance with ResCode.
As Council has further documented in its Strategic Plan and Budget, it doesn’t have clear and appropriate standards for the services it provides, doesn’t monitor the “unintended” consequences and cumulative impact of its planning decisions. It doesn’t even fight for the integrity of its Planning Scheme at VCAT. We were sold a crock of shit in 2004 and it’s getting smellier.
Far from economy of scale, we’re now seeing a diseconomy of scale. Governments at all levels are running away from the massive investment in infrastructure needed to support the population growth they project. Hearing Richard Wynne argue that no improvements should be made to the system for the forseeable future didn’t impress me.
May 6, 2015 at 4:32 PM
Nor did Wynne impress me either. Buzz words (consultation) thrive in the mouths of politicians, councillors and public servants. Even this last category has now been consigned into history. Council no longer has public servants since the meaning of the term (servant) has no bearing on what actually happens. We are currently saddled with council officers out to perpetuate their systems of control. In this scenario consultation only means we listen but never act and do not believe that anything which the public can contribute is meaningful, useful, or even valid. All that any of these groups fear is the ballot box and negative publicity.
May 6, 2015 at 6:36 PM
Off topic but readers may be interested to know that at last night’s Special Council Meeting the only changes to the draft was the with-holding of $100,000 for ‘landscaping’ of Hopetoun Gardens. We are still waiting for the canons to make their reappearance!
Pilling and Hyams were notable absences and Okotel and Esakoff declared several conflicts of interest due to their involvement in the Glen Eira Information Service. Thus 5 councillors voted on these documents.
One resolution which should raise many an eyebrow is the following –
Crs Lipshutz/Delahunty
(d) That Council note that the increase in average rates and charges per
property from 2016-17 to 2025-26 is approximately 3.18% – 3.63% p.a.
The MOTION was put and CARRIED unanimously.
Will the spin ever stop?
May 7, 2015 at 8:31 PM
If Delahyunty has seconded the resolution then she has displaced her zilch knowledge on accounting.