A comment went up on our last post which we believe needs to be highlighted:
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.
The comment is not from a NIMBY, or someone simply bemoaning the pace of change. What this comment expresses is:
- the utter devastation that the zones have caused to neighbourhoods and to individuals
- the failure of council administration and councillors to provide planning outcomes that are justifiable
- It illustrates completely how incompetent and negligent the imposition of the zones are when they fail to even meet Matthew Guy’s parameters
We have commented numerous times on Elliott Avenue, Carnegie and shown the once beautiful, well kept Edwardian cottages that are now gone. (https://gleneira.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/one-little-local-street/) Elliott Avenue is only one street. The same is happening to countless other streets and entire neighbourhoods. Why? Because the zones and the planning scheme encourage such destruction when there was no need for it. Even in their secret meetings, Newton and Hyams promised Matthew Guy that there would be 80+ years of available development sites! Glen Eira has now quadrupled the number of new dwellings it needs to meet population growth. Yet nothing has been done to ameliorate the damage and to amend the zones so that residential amenity is given greater protection. This failure must be sheeted home to all councillors and planners.
Here are the facts:
- Guy proclaimed that Residential Growth Zones (which this section of Elliott Avenue is zoned as) should be ‘Medium Density Housing’ and that the zones should be in ‘appropriate locations near activity areas, train stations, and other areas suitable for increased housing activity’. The current papers accompanying the review of the residential zones (MRDAC –advisory committee) define ‘Medium Density Housing’ as LESS THAN 75 DWELLINGS PER HECTARE. The section of Elliott Avenue zoned RGZ, is now approaching 220 dwellings per hectare!!!!!!! This kind of density belongs in selected commercial areas and never in a quiet residential street!
- Council’s definition of planning is to simply place a compass point at a train station (ie as in Bentleigh and Carnegie) and then draw a circle with a circumference of roughly 400 metres. This then becomes the ‘activity centre’ and determines the RGZ zoning. The map above shows how insane this is when walking distance to the train station from Elliott Avenue is well and truly greater than 800 metres. Plan Melbourne Refresh insists on activity centres concentrating on ‘walkability’. To therefore determine that just because a train station is (as the crow flies) about 400 metres away that this street should therefore be RGZ, is planning at its most incompetent and lazy. But that is what this council has done time and time again.
Residents, especially those residing in activity centres (including ‘neighbourhood centres’) must insist that the current planning scheme and its woeful local policies be consigned to the rubbish bin and that amendments are introduced asap which seek to halt the destruction of streets such as Elliott Avenue. Anything less is unacceptable.
We reiterate and urge all attendees at the ‘forums’ to proclaim loudly and clearly the need for:
- structure plans
- height limits for commercial and mixed use zoning everywhere
- parking precinct plans
- Urban design frameworks and Design & Development Overlays (DDO) that include more than simply regulating fence heights as is currently the case in 3 out of the 5 DDO’s in Glen Eira
- Infrastructure levies on developers for drainage (removed in 2010)
- For every car parking waiver a levy of at least $10,000 per waiver
- Tree protection (on private land)
- Heritage review of entire municipality and that this has some ‘bite’
- And most importantly, amending the schedules to the zones, and the zones themselves!
Glen Eira Debates 
May 11, 2016 at 9:25 AM
The numbers are horrifying. I can’t come close to imaging what it must be like living in Elliott Avenue or even in the surrounding streets with construction work going on for month after month. It is hell on earth and for no good reason except to be the first council in the state to bring in the zones and to accumulate more rates. I detest this council and its councillors for all their lies and refusal to admit that they were wrong on so many fronts. Their indifference to what is happening is unforgivable.
May 11, 2016 at 9:41 AM
Tranmere, even further from the station is going the way of Elliott. My neighbours are getting out as quickly as they can before they are left with a worthless single block property.
May 11, 2016 at 11:12 AM
What is happening to Elliot Av is a tragedy, and unnecessary, and unfair, and uneconomic, and unsustainable, and not supported by policy, but the gigantic Ponzi scheme that is planning in Victoria continues to roll on. And no decision-maker has ever read the Glen Eira Planning Scheme, or at least not the Municipal Strategic Statement. Nothing that State government or Council says can be taken seriously if they can be out by 23000 in their population estimates.
May 11, 2016 at 11:31 AM
Can I also suggest the need for planning controls on basements should be highlighted as this has a major impact on the general issue of overdevelopment. There is no mention of them in the planning scheme which is quite extraordinary given every development seems to have one.
Minimum setbacks / site coverage limits are required. This would help address several issues in one hit (e.g. lack of landscaping, insufficient parking to support overdevelopments)
May 11, 2016 at 12:41 PM
Thanks for pointing out our oversight in not mentioning this. FYI, Bayside has as part of its GRZ schedules the requirement that basement car parks not be greater than 75% of site coverage. That means no border to border underground parking and room for vegetation and reducing the risk of flooding in some areas. Of course, this does not feature in Glen Eira!
May 11, 2016 at 12:01 PM
Give your thanks to Hyams for walking over the residents and repeatedly saying that the zones are the same as before. With the help of his mates he held the sharade for three years just to support the fallen Guy. Pilling has given away the good image he once enjoyed in the community and needs to do some soul searching.
May 11, 2016 at 12:05 PM
The rot set in when the Housing Diversity/Minimal Change Policy was implemented in 2003 (Hyams and Esakoff were Councillors then). Council promised Structure Plans, Overlays yet did nothing. Even though these changes would have also enabled height limits to be set Council ignored their promises. The only thing they did was add traffic and parking management, open space and tree and heritage protection to list of issues to be ignored for the next 10 years.
Fast forward to 2013 Zone Implementation and height limits (which could implemented 10 years prior) were “plonked” over the Housing Diversity areas that were devoid of anything remotely resembling good town planning principles. Thus we have what we have today, massive over development without any constraints other than height. And as for the residents facing the current deluge the prevailing attitude is “they choose to live there so it’s their fault, not ours”.
As per the Minister’s letter both developers and VCAT are complaining.
. Developer’s (hard to sympathize I know but, in this instance, they have a point) are complaining because of the extra costs they incur bear because the planning scheme lacks clarity and erratic Council decisions (that’s if Council is able to make them within the 60 day time frame) that leave them no option other than appealling to VCAT.
. VCAT is complaining that Glen Eira’s Planning Scheme is so bad that it doesn’t give them any grounds on which to refuse a permit and although having doubts on Council’s traffic and parking analysis, VCAT has to accept Council’s consistent “not a problem” assessment.
May 11, 2016 at 1:13 PM
VCAT always has grounds on which a permit can be refused. The Act is explicit about this—responsible authority may refuse to grant a permit on any ground it thinks fit. Few multiunit developments actually comply with all residential amenity standards. Going further, if one looks at the Objectives of planning in victoria, you could take your pick from unfair, disorderly, uneconomic, unsustainable, unpleasant, inefficient, unsafe.
May 11, 2016 at 12:27 PM
The emotional strain on home owners who occupy their homes is palpable.we do not know what we can do because we have to make sure we don’t get left as that single worthless property. Do you make repairs to the house or do you let it go? Do you think about selling or dig your heels in? Do you make a pact with your neighbours to remain? Do you put up with the ongoing threat to your neighbourhood or just get out? Do you put up with the trucks, tradies cars, noise and local disruption or get out? Is the house worth selling now or later? Will it be worth anything with 4 stories looming over the back fence? Have to ask these questions every day and it is really challenging psychologically and emotionally to deal with them. Do I want to live in a sea of rented one and two bedroom flats with rubbishy bins filled to overflowing, junk dumped on the nature strip and people who have no interest in community. It is really hard. Council has so much to answer for and the psychological damage is rarely raised but is a huge issue
May 11, 2016 at 1:15 PM
It’s so awful to see people with somewhere to live. Makes me sick to the stomach to think about how many people will now be able to enjoy access to good public transport. All this so close to the CBD I just can’t contain my disgust with the positive environmental impact this has. And why won’t anyone think of the children who can now attend schools within walking distance? When will the madness end? It’s no wonder Victoria is going backwards …
May 11, 2016 at 2:49 PM
How wonderful it will be for children in small yardless homes with little to no nature, no public open space within walking distance, gee I wish I had these opportunities as a child, I may have grown up logical.
It will be great to see the little kiddies having a wonderful time in the local overcrowded schools getting a good education 50 to a room, breathing in the poisonous gases from the snarled traffic on the nearby roads.
I for one cannot wait to see and experience this brave new world.
Sounds like a hoot to me.
May 11, 2016 at 3:49 PM
I know, isn’t it dreadful that in this day and age when sensitivity and regard for each other is so paramount that there are still people in this world who have the audacity to
. be unwilling to give up their access to natural light in their homes and their daily dose of natural Vitamin D in their backyards.
. not be content to have every move made on their property (that is outside their bricks and mortar) overseen by at least 100 eyes
. be unhappy because they can’t access all their nearby services (eg. public transport, retail and parkland) or walk their kids to school due to traffic congestion, rat runs, builders debris and hard rubbish.
. think that trees are preferable to 4 stories (5 if you count the unused boundary to boundary basement car park) of non-environmentally friendly concrete consuming vast amounts of energy for lighting, heating and cooling
. not rejoice at the prospect of regular flooding from surface overflows
. complain that on-street parking conditions no longer allows them to have visitors or a new lounge suite delivered or a tradie come to fix that leaking tap.
Yep, definitely going backwards
May 11, 2016 at 3:49 PM
And thankyou for your compassion and understanding
May 11, 2016 at 5:18 PM
Nobody is saying that people shouldn’t have where to live. That doesn’t mean that they should live in substandard housing that has no natural light or adequate open space and in twenty years will become the slums of the city. It is also a myth that because these dwellings are close to train stations that there won’t be cars. There will always be cars so developers should be forced to provide onsite parking at all times.
Council also keeps talking about “diversity” then allows a majority of single bedroom apartments and two bedroom apartments to be built. You can have affordable housing that consists of three bedrooms as well so that families live there and not just students or renters.
May 11, 2016 at 10:03 PM
As long Monash Immigration Centre (aka University) is operating renters will be lining up. In most cases the flats are better than the would get where they came from.
May 11, 2016 at 1:30 PM
As a result of the Planning Minister’s initiated Planning Scheme Review and residents repeatedly demand GE implements the suite of planning tools it has shamefully ignored over the past 15 years, residents can expected to become totally fed up with hearing two words from Council.
Those two words are RATE CAPPING.
May 11, 2016 at 9:18 PM
Nothing can excuse what has happened to Elliott Avenue. Good planning should set the vision for what is acceptable. I agree that there is a building boom as council argues, but that is all the more reason why standards should have been set once the boom got underway. The zones are now nearly 3 years old. That is plenty of time to introduce changes. Council hasn’t done anything because they didn’t want to. They are now being forced to and I anticipate that they will only attempt the bare minimum to save face. We need a new council and councillors who act in accordance with community views.
May 11, 2016 at 10:14 PM
May I remind bloggers that Elliot Street is not the only one being decimated, it’s the current example. There are scores of similar streets, particularly in the Bentleigh and Carnegie Activity Centres and the small centres throughout Glen Eira.
Don’t just blog make a frigging submission to Council’s Planning Scheme Review and send a copy to the Minister. For the last 10-15 years (as the Minister’s letter makes clear) Council has relied on luck rather than planning. And your luck has run out.
May 12, 2016 at 11:54 PM
Funny thing too…Council has approved the use of a single home with 9 bedrooms, many double rooms, including a modified garage on the boundary(WITHOUT ADJOINING NEIGHBOURS’ KNOWLEDGE) so a permit fpr 14 occupants. The latest in housing for Backpackers, who have a lot of rubbush and do a lot of drinking…with two bins displayed for many days before. Surprisinglle although it is registered the owners are only obliged to provide one bin for each nee… no wonder there is an overflow! By Thursday the garbage is attractive to ravens, mynahs, vermin, wasps and flys picked out by the big birds, also blown out by prevailing winds and rubbish is spilledon the road and unmown service strip. Countless calls to council over many weeks unable to rectify situation because the busy officers usually say not to pick it up but tomorrow will be ok for them to inspect.
Does any reader have any suggestions as to how to overcome ther problem?
May 13, 2016 at 9:59 AM
As someone who has just spent 11 frustrating months of arguing with Council to get them to do something over vehicles rat running in a laneway at the same time that it is used by families accessing the local primary school, I wish you luck.
If Council doesn’t give a sh*t about the kids safety, you can bet they care even less about rubbish from overflowing biins in the street. You’ll be battling for years!!!!!
May 13, 2016 at 11:16 AM
A trip along the Glen Eira section of Hawthorn rd shows this once stately between the wars period of housing on reasonable land and attractive front gardens is quickly turning into a high density mess up cheaply built junk housing.