In 1993 Council opened Gardenvale Park and established a Public Acquisition Overlay (PAO) on the adjacent property at 53 Magnolia Road, Gardenvale, with the aim of eventually acquiring it to extend the Park. Around 2008 however, adjacent residents supported a Council initiative to remove that PAO, on the basis that the land involved had by then become too expensive for Council to acquire, especially as it would only extend the Park by a relatively small area. As neighbors, we also felt that this would only be fair to the owners, who could then renovate, develop or sell the property without restriction. For reasons known only to the owners, over the last seven years, the property has been uninhabited, the utilities disconnected, the building has taken on a derelict appearance, with broken windows, open doors and an untidy, overgrown yard that receives only occasional rudimentary maintenance. This in turn has attracted the following anti-social behavior to the house and adjacent park, which has impacted negatively on the amenity of Gardenvale Park and the lives of nearby residents:
- Teenage groups, sometimes even in school uniform, regularly trespass inside the house for underage drinking, sexual activity and smoking, including marijuana (as evidenced by the alcohol containers, used condoms and cigarette packets they leave behind and the odor of marijuana).
- Graffiti gangs have covered every interior wall of the house with their efforts, not to mention inflicting some of their work on properties in nearby streets for the first time.
- Cars full of youths occasionally meet up in the early hours of the morning in the cul-de-sac next to the house, with one person from each car entering and then quickly returning to their respective cars, which then head off off in different directions – drug deals?
- Vagrants routinely squat at the property.
- Bags of rubbish, including food and human waste, are piled ceiling-high in some rooms, attracting flies and rodents
- Evidence that trespassers use candles and light small fires inside the building and at the rear of the property to keep warm, heightens the risk of a serious house fire.
Police have been called on several occasions and have promptly attended. They managed to catch one of the squatters and move him on, and some patrolling of the vicinity may act as a welcome deterrent, but police can only respond to reports of incidents of trespassing or possible criminal activity as they occur. A Glen Eira Civic Compliance representative has also inspected the property and some action may be taken to encourage the owners to tidy up, fence off or board up the property to deter trespassing, however the legalities involved if the owners prove uncooperative may result in a long, drawn out process before the property is secured.
On 17th March 2015, Council advised nearby residents that Amendment C135 was being proposed to establish a new PAO on 53 Magnolia Road, again with the intention of extending Gardenvale Park. While all local residents are obviously pleased with this development and support the Amendment, based on the indecision exhibited by the owners and Council during previous years, we are rightly concerned that further delays will see the situation regarding the house deteriorate further. With Council now cashed up to purchase more open space, thanks to the 5.7 per cent levy on developers, and the property owners due for a nice windfall, thanks to current land prices, we trust that this time around, the Public Acquisition will come to pass – very promptly one would think. However, should this not be the case, local residents are not going to look on patiently while the property attracts escalating anti-social elements and criminality and further erodes our right to the quite enjoyment of the area. It is time that this fiasco finally ends with the demolition of this uninhabitable eyesore and the promised extension of a very popular local park. It will have only taken 22 years to achieve!
Signed
Gardenvale Park Local
COMMENT
Given the above comments, we ask:
- Has council enforced its own Local Law to the limit? Under Section 412 of this Local Law council has the authority to order the demolition of any ‘building or structure’ that is deemed to be “detrimental to the amenity of the area’.
- Have infringement notices even been issued?
- Is the ‘lack of money’ a decent enough excuse for removing a Public Acquisition Overlay and then 7 years later replacing it, when millions are wasted elsewhere and when both the 1987 and 1998 Open Space strategy clearly identified the lack of public open space in the area?
- How much more will it cost to purchase the property at today’s prices compared to what it could have cost seven or eight years ago, much less 22 years ago?
- There is no mention of any potential 53 Magnolia Road purchase in the current draft budget. If Council can foreshadow capital works years down the track and allocate funds for these works, it is quite strange that no mention is made of this Public Acquisition Overlay, nor the much publicised Mimosa Road debacle. Admittedly this still has to go through the normal processes of Panels, ministerial adoption and gazetting. However, if planning is up to scratch, then funding needs to be put aside. The budget and SRP is the place to itemise these plans.
Glen Eira Debates 
May 14, 2015 at 11:04 AM
Commiserations to the neighbours. Must be horrible living close to this kind of activity. From this and other posts that have gone up it is clear that council has no intention of bringing down the full force of the law on the perpetrators. I concede that it may be difficult, onerous, and possibly long drawn out. Yet, there is no point in making rules and regulations that sit there unheeded. Neighbours should not be woken up at 6am by huge trucks blocking their streets and sounding like the end of the world. Nor should people have to live next to such dens of iniquity with the potential fire and disease hazards.
Mimosa road is likely to turn out to be another 22 year exercise since council has promised that the elderly gentleman will remain as long as he likes. What this does to the adjoining property that was also earmarked for acquisition is anyone’s guess. If this is now all on hold then council should be looking elsewhere in Carnegie to purchase land and not merely put on an overlay. Most of the money is going to the upgrades of existing open space anyway so I fully expect the majority of funds to be spent in this manner instead of adding to the existing open space. BTW I wouldn’t call spending $450k to create half a street that is close to Caulfield Park a great use of ratepayers money. There must be many other suitable locations in this area that can be bought and turned into a valuable community asset.
May 14, 2015 at 1:56 PM
The situation in Magnolia Rd would not have arisen if the Council had got it right in the first place. When the Park was devised the suitable land was chosen then the council should have stuck with that plan. Removing the POA in 2008 was a mistake by well meaning people no doubt as they always are.
Hopefully the council will finds some cash to rid the poor residents of such poor amenity. Gardenvale has the lowest rate of parkland in the City.
May 14, 2015 at 5:11 PM
GE ain’t a council that get anything right first time round and not even second time round.
May 15, 2015 at 8:44 PM
The comment “Gardenvale has the lowest rate of parkland in the City” deserves to be challenged. For a start, Gardenvale is a tiny suburb. Nobody in Gardenvale is further than 500m from a public park. Compare that with people in the northern half of Carnegie for example, whose nearest public park is 1.4km away. There is no land zoned PPRZ in the northern half of Carnegie. What Council considers to be public open space is a chunk of asphalt in front of the library, and railway land alongside Carnegie station which Labor plans to redevelop to recoup the cost of level crossing removal [assuming that ever happens].
May 15, 2015 at 7:24 AM
The owner of this property has not been given a fair hearing on this blog site.
1) The original POA, applied for some 20 years and enforceable at a time of Council’s choosing, made it uneconomically viable for the owner to undertake improvements or to sell.
2) In the 7 years since Council removed the POA, the owner has sought to improve the property by rebuilding, however, Council has repeatedly not granted the required permits. Basically, when the official POA was removed, an unofficial one was imposed.
Thus for 27 years this property has been left in limbo – with both the owner and nearby residents being adversely impacted (the owner financially and the residents by amenity issues) while Council has screwed around.
Rather than lambasting the owner, lambaste the Council –
1) ask them why Council, after 27 years, has not extracted the digit and acquired the property and why they have allowed the conditions, mentioned above, to occur
2) ask them why Council over this same 27 years has continually served up the same rhetoric without an actions. That rhetoric being
a) focus on increasing open space (vs. pavillions, carparks and concrete paving and plinths in existing parkland),
b) responsive to the community (residential amenity, public safety) and
c) last, but by no means least, sound financial management and planning that does not enable the purchase of a relatively small block in almost three decades.
May 15, 2015 at 1:58 PM
The Planning Application Register doesn’t reveal any planning applications for the subject property. Are you SURE planning applications were made that Council refused? As for the PAO and acquisition, there are provisions within the governing legislation for a premium to be paid, and these are commonly invoked. It may be that Council was hoping to purchase without having to pay a premium.
It remains a monumental fuckup that Council and State Government didn’t plan for open space needs at the time they hatched their plans for massively increasing density in areas that were poorly served, and didn’t acquire property before the land price boom fueled by the rezoning.
May 15, 2015 at 11:43 PM
I certainly didn’t set out to deliberately vilify the owner of 53 Magnolia Road, and I apologize if my post gives that impression. From the local residents’ point of view however, we couldn’t understand why nothing happened at that property after we all enthusiastically supported the removal of the last PAO so the owner could actually fix the place up. I also guess it is easy for us all to assume that the owner must have rejected Council offers to acquire the property over such a long 27 year period. It is actually interesting to discover that there are two sides to this story, and that the owner may also be a victim of circumstances here. I am sure the Council bares much of this responsibility.
However I don’t believe this totally lets the owner off the hook with regards to the way the house has been virtually abandoned, with vagrants and anti-social elements now having free access, rubbish allowed to accumulate and the risk of fire an ever present possibility. While we don’t know his or her circumstances, totally abrogating responsibility for the state of the property is not a good way to treat your neighbors or the families who use the park.
We all have one big question – assuming that you either know, or have some connection to the owner, and that his or her economic plight is dire as a result of this 20 plus year stalemate, do you think the owner will be eager to accept the independent valuation offer should it be put forward by the Council at the end of the PAO amendment process?
signed
Gardenvale Park Local
May 15, 2015 at 10:33 PM
Coming from a legal background and having no dog in this fight, I feel some sympathy for both parties (and much more for the long suffering neighbors), who have been sucked into this bureaucratic whirlpool of procrastination, poor decision making and red tape. Depending on who you believe above, either the owners or the council are largely to blame, although the truth of these matters is usually a shared responsibility, From the history outlined on this site, I assume that 53 Magnolia Road is (or was) a typical deceased estate, which has passed to a family member or number of family members, who were not prepared for this inheritance and who may even be in dispute as a result. One thing is for certain, both the council and the owner(s) are receiving appalling advice, so here are two pro bono offerings:
1. The owner(s) of this property should have grave concerns about indemnity involving trespassers. Given the state of the house and the assumption that it is not covered by insurance (no insurance company I know of assumes risk for derelict, uninhabited properties), I would not be sleeping easy. You are exposed to a massive public liability law suit should any of the trespassers mentioned, be they vagrants, drug dealers or merely private school kids playing up, come to serious harm or worse as a result of a mishap under that roof. I just break out in a cold sweat reading about the use of candles and fires within the house! You should immediately and very publicly take all reasonable steps to have the property professionally shuttered or even fenced off, particularly if the trespassing is escalating and the public acquisition may be years away. While this may be an unwanted expense, to do nothing could see you sued for more than the property is worth .. and that is no exaggeration.
2. Assuming that the PAO will soon pass the necessary Council and State planning approvals, and assuming the Council has the funds to acquire such properties (as has been recently reported in the Council’s own press), the owner(s) should lobby the Council like crazy to sell at the earliest opportunity. There won’t be any haggling involved, as both parties in these types of cases must only consider the price that results from a proscribed independent valuation procedure. With the price of medium sized blocks alone in Elsternwick being at somewhere between three quarters of a million and one million dollars, the owners may actually come out of this mess with a smile (and of course the City will have a bigger Gardenvale Park). To do otherwise will see the owner(s) slide further into the abyss for years to come, with the risk of losing everything, especially if the advice offered in Point 1. is not acted upon.
3. The brief to Glen Eira Council is simple, contact the owners, arrange the valuation and make the offer as soon as possible.
Gardenvale Park Parent
May 17, 2015 at 10:33 PM
After browsing these posts regarding 53 Magnolia Road, I did not realize that so many of my fellow ‘legals’ resided within Melbourne’s smallest, officially gazetted suburb. Until now, my only knowledge of this property came from my two youngest offspring, who refer to it as “The Ghost House” during our visits to Gardenvale Park. An ‘interrogation of the innocents’ revealed that a few years ago, they heard on the ‘kids grapevine’ that some relative of the owner organized a couple of Halloween parties there for their young offspring and their school friends .. hilarious!. Considering the state of the house as described above, I bet they won’t be hosting another one anytime soon!
Anyway, I digress. After some years in property law, permit me to add the following gratis offerings to this fountain of legal advice:
Shakespeare said “What’s past is prologue”, and that very much applies to this matter:
1. Forget what has happened over the past 27 years, it is now just history and irrelevant to the current Amendment C135 and new Public Acquisition Overlay (PAO) proceedings.
2. While the state of the house and the anti-social elements it attracts are naturally of concern to affected residents and park goers, and largely resulted from the failure of the public acquisition to occur under the previous PAO, these issues constitute separate matters and are irrelevant to the current proceedings. They are the domain of Council bylaws officers and the police, and should not be pursued as part of the PAO process.
3. From my experience, on the rare occasions when Councils have reinstated a PAO, they tend to proceed promptly with both the acquisition and the project. To do otherwise exposes them to legitimate criticism for gross incompetence. What ever you may think, Council planning officers generally are not fools. I would suspect the current planning staff at Glen Eira will be keen not to make the mistakes of their predecessors. With the amount of public scrutiny on 53 Magnolia Road, you would hope that the Councilors will do likewise, especially as they have publicly stated so through their own ‘gleneiranews’ (April 2015 edition) – “The levy (for new and better parks) is estimated to raise $5 million in 2015/16″ ..”Council has commenced a process to acquire one property (53 Magnolia Road) in order to enlarge the very popular Gardenvale Park”. This should be reassuring for all concerned as they seem to have the funds, the PAO should soon be in place and they have publicly committed to this specific project.
4. I would hardly think the owner of 53 Magnolia Road needs any advice after what has transpired over all these years.The Council should make an offer soon, once the PAO is in place, based on a mandatory independent valuation process. The offer should be accepted without hesitation. The opportunity to walk away from a financial and legal quagmire like this, with something decent to show for the experience, rarely occurs. Take the money and run! I would however heed the earlier advice from my anonymous legal colleague about the urgency of securing the property in the meantime to reduce public liability risk. A tragic incident involving trespassers could see the impeding windfall wiped out in a heartbeat.
5. To my fellow Gardenvale residents I say – relax a little and let the process solve this problem. If I’m any judge (no pun intended), this will all be over within 12 months. With the 53 Magnolia Road ‘den of iniquity’ turned into parkland and the anti-social elements returning whence they came, we can all get back to the quite enjoyment of one of the smallest, but most blessed suburbs on the planet.
Local Legal Eagle.
May 18, 2015 at 11:10 PM
No, I’m not another lawyer, just a humble town planner (for an inner city Council) who resides on the other side of the tracks (South Caulfield), and enjoys the odd visit to Gardenvale Park with my little ones. Having witnessed some of the goings on described above, I too wondered what the deal was with that house, so many thanks to the bloggers here for enlightening me.
Unlike the lawyers, I actually know a thing or two about town planning and unlike the lawyers I will try to be brief.
Trust me, this latest PAO will go by the numbers, as set out in Glen Eira Council’s Minutes of its meeting of 3 February 2013, Item 9.1. (Co-ordinator Strategic Planning report). Residents adjoining the house and Gardenvale Park who take the time to check out these minutes on the Council’s website, especially the following Points, will realize they can rest easy knowing their troubles will soon be over:
Point 2 – no grey area here – PAO, followed by purchase, followed by park extension (i.e. demolition of house).
Point 6 – this has passed I believe, so Council should have the funds.
Point 7 – the third paragraph is significant. Once the Minister approves a PAO, the owner can ask the Council to purchase the property and the Council ‘must’ purchase it! The fourth paragraph emphasizes the fact that owners and Councils negotiate a date for an acquisition, which in this case should be asap considering the owner’s plight and the unoccupied nature of the house. Council will also be keen to expedite the demolition to eliminate the anti-social activity from the area and negate the public liability they will inherit with the house.
Point 8 – This is the clincher. In other words, ‘the owner has been informed’ means the owner and Council reached a ‘heads of agreement’ for the sale before the PAO was even proposed. The ‘process’ which follows can take up to six months, but is just rubber stamping of the acquisition.
Unless the owner or surrounding neighbors take leave of their senses and object at any stage, we may all be enjoying an extended park by Christmas.
Have a nice day you lucky Gardenvaleans.
Regards
South Caulfield Visitor
June 23, 2015 at 11:02 PM
It has been quite a while, but I do have some good news to report. Having been medically indisposed for the last month, I managed to catch up with one of my neighbors today for an update on the 53 Magnolia Road, Gardenvale saga. It seems he has been very busy during this time, writing submissions and meeting with Council representatives on behalf of the local residents. He has officially informed Council of our concerns regarding the criminal activities occurring at this derelict house. He particularly emphasized to Council, that, only by moving quickly to acquire the property, demolish the house and extend Gardenvale Park, would the associated problems be solved. He also mentioned to me that he was particularly impressed with Cr Jamie Hyams and the two Glen Eira Strategic Planning officers he met with, as they were all genuinely concerned about the deteriorating situation at the house and the resulting impact on locals and park users (credit where credit due). He felt that proof of this was born out by the fact that all his comments were officially recorded in the minutes of the last Council meeting (proof indeed).
A quick read of those Council Minutes (9 June 2015, Pages 33 – 36, Item 9.2), does confirm the good news, with Council unanimously carrying the motion to adopt Amendment C135 and requesting that the Amendment be forwarded to the Minister for Planning, for approval and gazetting. My neighbor’s submission is indeed noted under ‘Submissions’ and his comments further recorded under ‘Planning Conference’. It is quite satisfying to actually see our concerns officially taken into account (again, credit where credit due).
It also appears that ‘South Caulfield Visitor’, the humble town planner, did know more than all the lawyers (as outlined in the previous post). Council Minutes, Item 9.2, Point No.8 ‘Public Acquisition Overlay Process’ – clearly confirms that the Minister will not approve the PAO unless the Council accepts financial responsibility for the acquisition, and that once the PAO is in place, the owner is able to ask Council to immediately purchase the land and Council is obliged to do so at the current market value. One would assume all these requirements were ticked off before the Council adopted the motion and sent the Amendment to the Minister for approval. My neighbor also told me that the planning staff assured him that Council was in touch with the property owner. He further gained the impression that all parties would be working towards the prompt acquisition of the property and that, once acquired, it would only be sensible for the Council to demolish the house at the earliest opportunity to eliminate unnecessary ‘boarding up’ costs or possible liabilities involving trespassing, not to mention the need to eliminate the anti-social behavior.
According to my neighbor, the only bureaucratic delay in the process will be the time it takes for the Minister for Planning to approve the PAO and for the approval to be gazetted. Hopefully the stars will then soon align to reveal an extended Gardenvale Park – maybe even in time for Summer?
Signed
Gardenvale Park Local
July 8, 2015 at 10:48 PM
53 MAGNOLIA ROAD, GARDENVALE.
My elderly, father lives alone in a small flat in Magnolia Road, Gardenvale. I have just returned home after visiting him and felt compelled to post this account on your forum.
For the past three years I have visited my father on a fortnightly basis. I travel from the other side of town using public transport, as I can no longer drive. This evening, around 7.00 pm, I walked to his flat from Gardenvale Station, along Elster Avenue and through Gardenvale Park. As I approached the old house on the edge of the park, at 53 Magnolia Road, I saw two disheveled looking men sitting on the house fence. They appeared to be on drugs. One of them stood up and staggered towards me in the dark demanding cigarettes. I said I didn’t smoke and he started to act aggressively. In the dark I feared for my safety. Thankfully, a car came out of a driveway opposite, shining its headlights on us. This caused the man to return to sitting on the fence. As I walked away, I heard his companion yell at him saying: “Don’t do shit to square heads in our patch you fuck wit!”
On arriving at my father’s flat, I mentioned the incident. My father told me not to walk through the park at night again because: “A ‘wild man’ squats in that abandoned house now and ice addicts hang around it doing deals”. I was shocked to learn that my father no longer goes to the park every day to read his paper in the gazebo. He is now too afraid. He mentioned that an elderly woman, who lives in another block of flats in Magnolia Road, has also stopped going near the park for the same reasons. According to him, it is no good ringing the police because: “The ‘wild man’ just comes back and squats all the time and the druggies disappear through the park when the cops arrive”. He also added that no one cares anymore because the council are buying the house to solve the problem, but it could still take a year or two.
A neighbor of my father directed me to your Glen Eira Debates forum and this thread concerning the derelict house at 53 Magnolia Road, Gardenvale. What I read here confirms my father’s account of the situation. It looks as if the council may soon acquire this house to extend the park, which is good news.
What still concerns me is the thought that the existing anti-social situation will be tolerated until the house is demolished. Tonight I personally experienced real fear outside 53 Magnolia Road. I believe it was only luck that I was not assaulted or robbed. I also wish to highlight the plight of my father and other elderly residents of Gardenvale. They are virtual prisoners in their flats because of this. It is unbelievable that they no longer feel safe enough to visit Gardenvale Park in broad daylight, because of the undesirables attracted to that house. One hopes that the council will knock that place down as soon as they buy it. The longer 53 Magnolia Road continues to stand, the longer the enjoyment of that lovely park and the immediate neighborhood is seriously compromised.
While I am not a resident of Gardenvale, I speak on behalf of my father in asking the conveners of Glen Eira Debates to urge the Glen Eira Council to act promptly after they purchase the house. Please urge them to demolish it and extend the park sooner rather than later, so locals and visitors can again feel free to walk Gardenvale’s streets without fear. In particular, senior Gardenvale and Elsternwick residents, like my father, should not be deterred from enjoying Gardenvale Park in their twilight years – it is one of the few pleasures that remain for them.
Concerned Son.
July 8, 2015 at 11:00 PM
The amendment placing a public acquisition overlay on the property has been sent off for the Minister’s approval and subsequent gazetting. Until this is done Council is not in a position to purchase the property.
July 9, 2015 at 10:17 PM
My thanks to Glen Eira Debates for putting up the post of a non-resident. The reply from ‘gleneira’ is also most welcome.
After rereading this thread a few times and searching the relevant Glen Eira council minutes online, I do appreciate that the council have done their part up to this point. The council certainly must now wait for the Victorian government minister’s approval etc, before the owner and the council are authorized to complete the transaction.
Where the council does have an opportunity to make a significant impact on this whole business, is by making sure they are ‘shovel ready’ to demolish the house as soon as they purchase it. I already get the feeling that everyone affected by this situation, including the council, are keen to ‘get on with it’, not only to extend the park, but to rid Gardenvale of the anti-social elements currently attracted to the house.
My father and his fellow Gardenvale senior citizens are certainly looking forward to the day the bulldozers arrive at 53 Magnolia Road. Only then will they feel it is safe to return to their beloved Gardenvale Park. I know my father believes that day will arrive in a timely fashion, once the council takes ownership. I see no reason not to share his confidence.
Concerned Son.
July 10, 2015 at 11:22 PM
Time For The Police To Get Serious!
Sorry, but I can’t believe what I’m reading here – is everyone missing the point?
No doubt the anti-social problems will be solved in the long term when the Council acquires 53 Magnolia Road and tears it down. The real question is – why haven’t the police done more to deal with the associated criminal activity and protect locals and park users?
According to this blog, plus what I recently read in the Leader, we have: a squatter who refuses to move on; the risk of arson; school kids meeting for underage drinking, drugs & sex; graffiti vandals plying their trade; gangs doing suspected drug deals and passers by being accosted by drug addicts.They seem to act with impunity, while locals feel compelled to avoid the area near the house. Where are the police?
With so much publicity and the Council’s involvement, not to mention the odd call from concerned neighbors, the Caulfield CIU is surely aware of the situation. When I read that neighbors are worried for their safety and elderly residents afraid to use Gardenvale Park, I start to wonder at what point do the police determine significant action is warranted? I’m sure they aren’t actually waiting for the place to burn to the ground, a school girl to get raped, a druggie to overdose, a drug gang shootout, a local to be assaulted, or an elderly park user to be mugged, or worse?
Now don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for the police and their tireless work. I also know the days are gone when police could just arrive with batons drawn and ‘persuade’ offenders to move on. But surely there is enough substatiated and anecdotal evidence about the goings on in and around 53 Magnolia Road to warrant an appropriate response. It is not good enough to let this situation continue for the many months it will possibly take before the demolition of the house finally solves the problem. At the very least, Caulfield Police should now act to assure locals that these anti-social elements aren’t free to do as they please while the house remains.
Come on VicPol, show the long-suffering residents of Gardenvale who’s in charge!
July 15, 2015 at 4:58 PM
Unfortunately I think the Police are ” actually waiting for the place to burn to the ground, a school girl to get raped, a druggie to overdose, a drug gang shootout, a local to be assaulted, or an elderly park user to be mugged, or worse”. If you notice ANYTHING untoward at 53 Magnolia, CALL THE POLICE. Especially if you feel in danger. Local neighbours call the police regularly & the Police are VERY aware of the goings on in there. But one of their recent responses from the police was :”if it catches on fire, its brick so it can’t do much damage!” Let’s hope if this happens it doesn’t happen on a day of total fire ban with 100km winds. That would not be good for the close-by weatherboard houses.
July 17, 2015 at 11:58 PM
Get Real
All the blokes carried on over all this stuff at the local barbers yesterday and the barber told me about this web place.Dam hard to find this story about 53 Magnolia Road on your web and took me a long time. Why isnt it under 53 Magnolia road??? Just a sugestion!!!
Any how I told blokes at the barber there was no big drama at Gardevale Park and they told me there was. This is bull cause I am on permanant disability and have best view in town all day from balcony of Gardenia Road flats and I go to park all the time for a smoke and the coin BBQ sometimes. Some of us Gardenia road renters have been checkin out all the stuff that happens in Garden Vale park and that dero house for years too. All the local owners need to chill out. Yeah there’s a bit of druggie stuff, school kids boozing and fagging and pashin on at the house and a bit of grafing and sometimes some groups of blokes punch on but it aint no crime wave. Its not only the house its just what happens in parks ocassionally so get over it. This stuff has been goin on for over 10 years in the park that I know of. Yeah, one of the old blokes in our building wont sit in the park either anymore because he thinks the bloke squattin in the house might get him but its because all these local old buggers are paranoid anyway. All these yarns come from the local rich owners with their $2 million houses wantin values to go up even more by havin the house pulled down for the park. These yarns are out of control but most is bull which has just upset the old people around the place. Its just made the oldies scarred which is sad but its a over kill.
Anyway what i really wanted to tell is two things about that squatter you all call the wild man as I talked to him and he’s a OK bloke doing it tuff. So give the bloke a break as he just wants a roof. maybe you should take him a hot meal instead of trying to set the cops on him all the time. You all should try living in a hole without electricity and rats in winter and see how you like it. Stop hassling the poor bloke. Wheres your christian charity. The second thing is the cops and council cant do nothing anyway if the bloke hasn’t broken the law. Only the bloke who owns the joint can shift him legally by having him fixed up by winging to the cops about him as a tresspasser, but the owner doesn’t care does he so why should you. Cops and the council goons can act the heavy but a squatter can just stay unless a owner gets legal. Hes not gonna burn the place either as its his shelter, so chill out everyone. No action by owner means cops can’t do anything. I know this cause I have lived rough during my life.
Give the bloke a break and stop acting like that dump and the park is full of ax murderers. You are just upsettin the oldies. Gardenvale is not Underbelly Land.
A Renter Near Park
July 19, 2015 at 9:34 PM
OH DEAR!
Where do I begin? While our ‘Renter Near Park’ friend from the Gardenia Road apartments has an ‘interesting’ point of view concerning the 53 Magnolia Road property and the elements it attracts (both literally and philosophically), I am compelled to state the obvious – that he has unwittingly made the case for the surrounding property owners.
While the house and park may not yet have achieved ‘Underbelly’ status or witnessed any axe murders (THANK GOD), his first hand account of drug activity, school children at risk, vandalism, trespassing and the latest revelation – violent confrontations (or “groups of blokes punching on” as he so eloquently put it), is substantial evidence which justifies the concerns being expressed by neighbors and park goers.
This weekend there were press reports of the methamphetamine epidemic being further fueled by cheap prices, and a middle aged man being seriously injured by a drug-addict who tried to rob him in broad daylight in a North Richmond street. When drug oriented criminal elements find a sanctuary where they believe they can congregate and act without consequences, they eventually become entrenched, to the detriment of the area. Just ask the residents of North Richmond how it all started. I agree entirely with ‘a very close neighbor’ who posted: “CALL THE POLICE IF YOU NOTICE ANYTHING!”
As far as giving squatters a break or taking them a hot meal, the best thing you can do for them is continue to report them so that eventually they will be encouraged to move to decent accommodation. Yes, ‘Renter Near Park’ has a point in saying that there are legal issues if a property owner does not make a trespass complaint, but tolerating squatters is a recipe for disaster for both squatters and locals alike. While the current squatter may be a ‘good bloke’, mark my words, if he is not moved on he may eventually be joined by more squatters, some of whom may not be good blokes at all!
Recent planning developments indicate that the demolition of 53 Magnolia Road is on the cards. While this will solve the problem in the long term, everyone needs to be vigilant and report all criminal activity in the interim. This will not only bring official pressure to bear on the property owner, but will discourage anti-social elements from gaining a foothold in Gardenvale.
Local Legal Eagle
PS. Great to hear that the local barber shop is still the Agora for gentlemen to debate topical issues.
July 23, 2015 at 10:29 PM
Only Through Good Luck .. Fingers Crossed!
It is certainly wonderful news that the derelict house at 53 Magnolia Road, the magnet attracting anti-social and criminal outsiders to the Gardenvale Park area, appears to be on track for demolition. One hopes it will occur in a timely manner, once Ministerial approval for the new Public Acquisition Overlay is given.
This will effectively ‘eradicate the pests by destroying their nest’. From a legal standpoint however, I fail to understand how the situation was allowed to get so out of hand in the first place. If such scenarios are to be avoided in the future, the following questions regarding civic responsibility need to be addressed:
1. Why did the property owner allegedly abandon the house for the long term, without any apparent concern for the impact this may have on neighboring residents and park goers?
2. With residents regularly complaining to both Police and the City of Glen Eira for at least five years about the state of the house and the associated trespassing and criminality, why has action still not been taken under local bylaws to force the owner to secure the building, demolish it, or at least tidy it up? (I walked passed it today and it remains overgrown and strewn with rubbish).
3. With Police identifying squatters at the house, did the Police attempt to contact the owner regarding the situation?
4. If Police did contact the owner, why has the owner still not acted to evict the squatters and secure the property against trespassing in general?
The fact that neighbors and local residents have been placed in harm’s way all this time, is a situation that did not just happen, it was ALLOWED to escalate over many years. The parties involved either really didn’t care, or did not pursue the law vigorously enough. Hopefully neighbors and locals will survive the remaining months until the house is leveled, without anyone coming to grief as a result of this disgrace. If no one does, it will be through shear good luck, certainly not through good will or good management!
Gardenvale Park Parent
July 31, 2015 at 9:28 PM
Why hasn’t the Council fined the hell out of the owner or imposed a clean-up after all these years?
How is it possible for the owner to disrespect the Elsternwick community by leaving 53 Magnolia Road in such a disgraceful state for so long without any apparent consequences?
As the owner obviously has no civic conscience, the threat of heavy fines would at least force the owner to hire Jim’s Mowing a few times a year!
What really gets on my goat is the fact that, one street away, my son was fined for parking his car partly across our driveway for five minutes when he came to pick up his invalid grandmother (who lives with me) to take her for a hospital appointment. No mercy shown by the Glen Eira ‘grey ghost’, despite clearly seeing my son assisting her (with her walking frame) to the car and having the situation explained to him. My protests to Glen Eira Civic Compliance were also met with the usual “You can’t block a driveway, even your own”, & “We can’t make an exception” bull.
There has been stuff in the local paper and on this site for months about that house being “unsightly, overgrown and strewn with rubbish”. Despite all this publicity, I walked past it today and nothing has changed!
Finally, I have two questions –
1/ When Glen Eira officers are so diligent in fining a resident for briefly parking across their own driveway, why hasn’t the same diligence been applied to this long standing, flagrant breach of Council bylaws?
2/ Can’t the Council send their own maintenance staff to tidy the place up and send the owner the bill?
August 1, 2015 at 10:55 AM
This is a council whose staff consider it appropriate to fine children for playing in our public parks. The same staff repeatedly refuse to take enforcement action against developers who block off footpaths without appropriate permits. The CEO under LGA 94A(3) is responsible for the poor exercise of discretion in the case of this parking infringement. I do hope the infringement notice clearly spells out the regulation and subclause that Council allege was being infringed. That would mean the officer was well aware that there is provision for blocking a driveway for the purposes of dropping off and picking up passengers and that the officer was clearly acting contrary to the spirit of the regulations. [No surprises there!] This should be a matter for a Ward councillor to pursue with the CEO.
August 1, 2015 at 8:16 PM
Thanks for the advice Reprobate. The driveway parking fine was issued about three years ago, so it is only a bad memory now. While I wrote two letters and had it officially reviewed back then, it was not withdrawn. I never thought of taking the issue up with my local Ward Councilor (I’ll keep that in mind for the future). In the end, I just paid it and moved on. I wasn’t prepared to waste any more of my valuable time on a low level fine and I didn’t want the Sheriff knocking on my door nine months later with a warrant for three times the amount.
It does however remain the perfect illustration of the point I am making. When Council officers are so quick to fine residents for everyday parking misdemeanors and the like, why haven’t they acted with similar gusto against the owner of 53 Magnolia Road, whose abandonment of the property has had a far more detrimental impact on the community over the last five years? Every day that house remains in a dilapidated, unsecured, overgrown, rubbish-strewn, rat-infested state, bears witness to the fact that the Council has completely failed its constituents regarding this issue.
August 8, 2015 at 8:35 PM
WILL THIS SUMMER BRING MORE THEFT & VANDALISM?
Our family has lived a few doors down from 58 Magnolia Road for many years. We know all too well that the livability of the surrounding Gardenvale neighborhood took an uncharacteristic dive after that house was abandoned.
One family living close-by (since sold up and relocated), was plagued by repeated driveway break ins. The damage routinely inflicted on their luxury cars took its toll on both their wallets and their nerves. These incidents escalated over a number of years and mainly occurred during the warmer months. They and other neighbors were forced to take extra measures to curb this, including intruder lighting, calls to police and occasionally having to chase off perpetrators in the early hours of the morning.
In April 2013 the culprits responded with a wave of vandalism that saw cars in the vicinity splashed with yellow paint and a huge yellow ‘ laughing cartoon face’ painted on the road surface at the intersection of Elster Avenue and Oswald Street. The ‘face’ and associated graffiti were a case of the culprits literally sticking their tongues out at locals for daring to challenge them. Not only did the affected neighbors have to bear the inconvenience and cost of cleaning up their cars and properties, but ratepayers footed the bill for a Glen Eira Council maintenance team to asphalt over the distracting graffiti on the road.
.. and .. Where was an empty yellow paint tin and a couple of used brushes found the next day? You guessed it – ON THE FRONT DOOR STEP OF 58 MAGNOLIA ROAD!
Apart from that persistent squatter and another smashed front window, this very cold Winter seems to have kept things reasonably quiet at the house. However history tells us that, come Summer, the thieves and vandals will be back at 58 Magnolia Road with a vengeance. Hopefully the Council may have acquired and demolished the place before then and saved us from another associated Summer crime wave!
signed
Too Close For Comfort
August 9, 2015 at 12:17 PM
By the way, it’s 53 Magnolia Rd we are talking about, not 58!
Maybe it’s time to start lobbying the Minister for Planning, Hon Richard Wynne, since that is where it has all come to a standstill. Here are his details:
Electorate Richmond
Positions Minister for Planning
Party Australian Labor Party
House Legislative Assembly
Electorate Office
Street Address 112 Smith Street, Collingwood, VIC 3066
Postal Address PO Box 1474, Collingwood, VIC 3066
Phone (03) 9415 8901
Fax (03) 9415 8918
Ministerial Office
Street Address Level 20, 1 Spring Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000
Phone (03) 8392 6175
Internet
Email richard.wynne@parliament.vic.gov.au
Website http://www.richardwynne.com.au
Twitter http://twitter.com/rwynnemp
August 9, 2015 at 11:15 PM
Note to the Glen Eira Debates convenor:
My apologies for repeating the incorrect house number in Post 15, it is definitely 53 Magnolia Road, on the corner with Elster Avenue (there isn’t a number 58). Would you please edit my post to correct the number in the three instances I have been in error in my post. I wouldn’t want to be the cause of anyone writing to the Minister quoting the wrong address.
signed
Too Close For Comfort
August 11, 2015 at 9:25 PM
A CAUTIONARY TALE ABOUT SQUATTERS!
I understand how ‘Too Close For Comfort’ misread the house number – it is so roughly painted on the corner gate posts that, at a glance, the 3 does look like an 8.
What concerns me more, is the fact that this morning I saw the so called ‘wild man’ exiting 53 Magnolia Road. In addition, my son just returned from walking the dog and mentioned that candle light can be seen in the windows of the house. So, despite comments to the contrary on this thread, the squatter has not been moved on – HE IS STILL LIVING THERE!
Whatever you may think about his circumstances, for all our sakes, DO NOT TAKE HIM A HOT MEAL! Do not in any way make his stay at that house comfortable, as some of you have suggested. Such ‘charity’ is counterproductive for all concerned. It actually makes the situation worse by encouraging further squatting. It will also attract criminal elements to the Gardenvale area, when locals become known on the anti-social grapevine as – ‘easy touches who don’t call the coppers’. It is the same reason authorities warn us not to donate to street beggars in the CBD. The donations are usually spent on alcohol, drugs and the furthering of criminal enterprises. It also enables begging and squatting to become entrenched and facilitates the establishment of criminal networks in so called ‘soft’ residential areas. Marked rises in vandalism, burglaries, car break ins, car stealing, drug dealing and muggings, soon follow .. SO DON’T CREATE A ROD FOR OUR BACKS!
As the squatter has not been evicted under the Summary Offenses Act, I can only assume that the owner either doesn’t know of his presence, has reached an understanding with him regarding occupancy, or more likely, doesn’t give a toss. Whatever the reason, it means that Glen Eira Council will be left to evict the squatter when it eventually takes possession of the property. While most squatters usually move on immediately when asked, should this squatter refuse, it could delay the demolition of 53 Magnolia Road by many months while the appropriate legal process runs its course. This is yet another compelling reason for locals not to make the squatter feel welcome!
Local Legal Eagle