Our thanks to Urban Melbourne for these pics!
May 10, 2016
Some More Councillor ‘Gifts’
Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport[8] Comments
Glen Eira Debates 
May 10, 2016 at 9:42 AM
FYI – the first picture (Koornang Road) is now 6 storeys and 26 units
May 10, 2016 at 11:12 AM
Yup, councillor “gifts” indeed. They’ve sat back, done nothing, and let this happen. Without Wynne’s order they would still be sitting back and blaming vcat for everything. They must all go at this election.
May 10, 2016 at 5:00 PM
We live in the house next to the 51 units, 4 storeys, 3-9 Elliott Ave. It is on our north side! We will also be opposite 60 more units in Elliott Ave. Only 6 out of 20 houses left in our part of this small suburban street…… what can we say. We explored all avenues including going to VCAT, employing a Planner for quite a substantial fee. We achieved some minor concessions with shadowing and setbacks. It has been an exhausting process. I wonder if we are completely stupid to continue to stay here after 36 years, enjoying the peace and convenience of living in Carnegie. However, all has changed. The council has won. The peace and joy of living here is shattered. We will stay and see how things pan out. The world is changing at such a rapid pace around us and I’m afraid we’ve lost faith in the Council and it’s concern for the community. We will look back in a few years time at the implementation of these zones and wonder how it could happen. In a bizarre way it makes me empathise with the first people of our country and the bewilderment of colonisation! Rapid change can leave a community depleted.
May 10, 2016 at 7:15 PM
So sorry to hear of your demise. Unbelievable that Councillors can stand back and allow this to happen. It is devastating. They have to take some responsibility. We need to make sure the Planning policy being written will protect Glen Eira residents from the continuation of this rampant over development.
May 10, 2016 at 7:20 PM
Ya know if Council had done it’s job way back in 2003 when it promised to do structure planning, at least there could have been some moderation. But alas not only have we be governed by useless Councillors, the Administration was more interested in building their ivory tower than undertaking proper planning.
What you see today is the result of years of doing nothing and getting by on luck rather than management. .
May 10, 2016 at 10:21 PM
It would be extraordinary if 178 Koornang Rd is now 6 storeys. It only got its original permit for 5 storeys by order of VCAT, for the usual specious reasons. Council cited 178 Koornang Rd in its letter to the Minister requesting PAEA be amended to require VCAT to apply Council policy rather than just “taking them into account”. So how did the applicant manage to get an extra storey? The Planning Application Register is as always woeful, only stating that the permit was amended on 12 June 2015. VCAT hasn’t published a further decision. Perhaps ward councillors can explain [unless asked a public question].
May 10, 2016 at 11:51 PM
I find comments here so far off the mark that I think I am talking to ‘ordinary mugs’ that do not understand realities of life. By any measure that you may take and compare Glen Eira Council performance with other Councils, they are near the top of metro Councils performance. The reason being is that those things that they do do, they do well, with other things being shoved off to the State or Federal Governments or totally privatised. That strategy and policy was implemented back in year 2001, after Andrew Newton became CEO and Paul Burke became Director Public Relations. They have not changed that strategy and used it effectively to extract money from the State Government, whatever persuasion.
What I am pointing to is a deliberate strategy and policy and NOT any kind of deficiency. The lack of Structure Planning and broad based approach to zoning is ALL part of that strategy and policy. To suggest that the Council did not expect the result they have now is also wrong. They actually expected it sooner and perhaps in slightly different locations. Essentially they got what the Planning Scheme was designed for with particular attention to certain areas being protected from the over-development, because some individual Councillors live there. But that too was carefully managed.
Finally, managing the expectations of the ‘community’ was also carried out deliberately and carefully to ensure that you the public are treated like mushrooms ‘kept in the dark and fed manure’. It is still being done right now with the ‘mugs’ public asked for an opinion, but then interpreted to carry out decisions already made by the management.
In conclusion, you can either be a ‘mate’ of the Council, if you are on their side or simply an ‘ordinary mug’. I have no illusions who I am, just an ‘ordinary mug’. So are you ALL.
May 11, 2016 at 8:25 AM
Ivory, the first culprits are the Councilors of your ward who have agreed to change the face of Carnegie. They lifted no finger to put a stop. Now one of them is standing for the position of a Senator who has not even comleted a full term and was blindly voting with her liberal mates. Would you and others vote for them?