The insanity of Glen Eira planners and councillors is nowhere more pronounced than in Bent St, Bentleigh/McKinnon.
This narrow, winding local street runs off the Coles Supermarket in Bentleigh through to McKinnon Road. It contains three distinct zones – Neighbourhood Residential, General Residential and Residential Growth Zone – with the NRZ a small oasis smack in the middle of this stretch of road. Since the introduction of the zones council has basically given the green light for the development of at least 217 apartments – one application listed in the online register is totally uninformative – ie ‘Multi level residential unit building’. Maybe 20 units? Maybe 30 units? Maybe 55 units as granted to 14 Bent St?!!! Hence the figure of 217 is ultra conservative, plus the fact that most of these applications include reduced visitor parking. The total could well be in the realm of 250 new dog boxes along a stretch of road that is approximately 500 metres long.
This brings us to the heart of the matter – how well this council has, and is, planning for the future. Answers to the following questions are essential. We believe that they would all be answered in the negative!
When was the last drainage upgrade for this street?
What infrastructure plans has council made for this area and how much will it cost ratepayers since there is no development contributions levy from applicants?
What number of dwellings does council consider as ‘capacity’ for this street?
Has any traffic analysis been undertaken of this and connecting streets in the past 3 years?
How many parking fines have been issued in this street over the past 2 years?
How many of these properties have been moonscaped? How many mature trees have been lost?
Here are the facts on Bent Street since the introduction of the zones –
10 – 12 Bent Street BENTLEIGH VIC 3204 – 4 storey, 35 dwellings
14-18 Bent Street BENTLEIGH VIC 3204 – 4 storey, 55 dwellings
15 Bent – 3 storey, 17 dwellings
20 Bent Street BENTLEIGH VIC 3204 – Multi level residential unit building
22-26 Bent Street BENTLEIGH VIC 3204 – 4 storey, 36 dwellings
23 Bent – 4 storey, 34 dwellings
64-66 Bent Street MCKINNON VIC 3204 – 3 and 4 storey, 31 dwellings (refusal)
67 Bent St – 2 double storey attached
75 Bent Street MCKINNON VIC 3204 – 2 storey, 7 dwellings
217 PLUS UNKNOWN NUMBER IN ONE SINGLE STREET. THANK YOU COUNCIL!
Glen Eira Debates 
July 6, 2015 at 10:29 AM
217 units means about another 300 to 350 cars into the street. Impossible to get through now if cars are parked on both sides of the street.
July 6, 2015 at 1:55 PM
Off topic, but of interest to those interested in MRC/CRRT issue. Listen to today’s Cr Jim Magee interview on 774 http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programitem/peyl3M17B3?play=true starting at 38 minutes.
July 6, 2015 at 5:16 PM
Jim was a joke, and the many folow up callers showed what an out of touch jerk he is.
Jim is a came across as a raving sports mad red-neck and missed a golden opportunity to put a good case forward for residents needs for more open space.
Good help us, is there a invisable arrow in outer space pointing to Glen Eira saying, second rate councillors here please
July 6, 2015 at 4:59 PM
Gonna be interesting to see how
. the garbage will be removed when their are cars parked on either side of the street and
. much sleep the residents will get when the garbage trucks arrive in the wee small hours.
July 6, 2015 at 4:59 PM
None of the zoning in this street makes any sense to me. The maps show that the majority of those in neighbourhood residential back onto the railway line. They are the ones that should have been allowed 3 and 4 storeys and not the others that back onto their neighbours and cause overlooking, overshadowing and no privacy. Some clown just sat at his desk and drew a line on a map. I would bet that he never ever set foot in Bent. That is the state of planning in Glen Eira. Disgusting.
July 7, 2015 at 8:20 AM
You are deriding clowns. Clowns are professional actors and their craft is to make people laugh. They know what the are doing. The person in the town hall at a desk with a pencil does not have any idea what they are doing.
July 6, 2015 at 8:12 PM
The post is very informative and should raise much concern for anyone living in Glen Eira and particularly for those who are unlucky enough to find themselves living in housing diversity. The zones have made things worse and created a second class citizenry who council believes aren’t worthy of the same site coverage, open space, permeability standards as others living in different suburbs. When people don’t have a say in the events that can ruin their lives then the culprits should be held fully accountable.
July 7, 2015 at 3:05 PM
Actually, the NRZer’s should be even more concerned. With this pace of development it won”t be too long before they are up for re-zoning and if they live near a large lot that is up for sale they can expect 3 stories (aka the Alma Club).
And while awaiting rezoning they can rest assured that Council’s planners will not give a hoot about the ratruns that develop in their streets or all the extra cars parked in their streets due to the high density developments only having one car parking space and no visitor parking.
Oh did I mention all those in a Special Building Overlay area – look out for all that surface water cause all those boundary to boundary basement carparks and an antiquated drainage system mean it will be looking for somehwere to go.
July 7, 2015 at 7:48 AM
MODERATORS: comment deleted
July 7, 2015 at 2:55 PM
Bent street is only one street in all of Glen Eira. I am positive that there are countless other streets in exactly the same predicament. Off the top of my head and from recent postings here I’d nominate Neerim road and Mavho street for a start. Council has to take full responsibility for the carnage that is happening everywhere. They have not lifted a finger to try and improve the situation for residents. It is all part of the plan to bring in more apartments and more rates with no thought at all about traffic and infrastructure and how this is affecting people. Councillors have not insisted that anything be done. They are happy to go along with whatever officers say – that is except when it comes to heritage and vested interests. All in all, it is not surprising that long time residents are leaving in droves. The sad part is that this only clears the way for more building and profits to developers. In my opinion there has not been any adequate planning in Glen Eira for decades and we are now paying the price for this incompetence and disregard for community.