Tonight’s forum was unfortunately very poorly attended by residents. Nor did the developer reps fill us with confidence that the upcoming amendment will resolve all of the community’s concerns.
The major points to come out of tonight were:
- The Education Department is ‘investigating’ the need for additional educational facilities in the area. No ‘answer’ as yet. The developers would be prepared to sell the land to the department/government. This could be in the vicinity of 1 hectare. If not a school, then possibly a ‘community centre’. We assume that this would involve council perhaps purchasing the land.
- The possibility of a commercial car parking venture on site
- The area currently zoned Commercial 1 would remain. The rest of the site rezoned to Mixed Use
- The project life is up to 15 years
- No solution to traffic, apart from advocating for car-share, more traffic lights and buses to run through the site
- The developers have been in constant contact with council’s various departments
- One mention of 5000 new residents. How many apartments does this mean?
All in all it is practically impossible to comment on what will eventuate given the lack of detail on just about everything. We simply urge residents to be wary of any amendment and Schedules that are not spelt out to the nth degree.
Glen Eira Debates 
December 7, 2016 at 8:20 AM
Sneaky! Only two reasons why you’d have commercial car parking – to make money and because you are going to waive residential and visitor car parking.
December 7, 2016 at 8:46 AM
Didn’t know a community forum was on. When State Government rejected a plan to relocate bus service to East Boundary Road, they undermined any credibility they may have had on planning matters. What is the government’s plan to tackle the North Rd/East Boundary Rd bottleneck? I’d be more impressed if decision-makers solved problems faster than they created new ones.
December 7, 2016 at 8:46 AM
This whole proposal is just maintaining the previous approach. But it is larger. The issue of traffic, residences, commercial shopping impacting on the local shops, parking etc are all there as before. The developers are still in their greedy mode by manipulating the present zoning to call it an activity centre and give the impression that there is a village feel to this site. It should be maintained as a commercial / industrial location only – which is what the council members indicated is should remain. This has the potential to have more than 5000 people with the proposed heights which is way over what is practical for this area. This location is NOT the same as the commercial zones along rail corridors or main roads with commercial interests. When any of these issues have been raised during discussion they are fobbed off with comments that it is too early to fully know the full impacts. What a load of BS. This whole process has been done to convince council that consultation with the community has been done and that all the ideas within the master plan have the backing of that community.
December 7, 2016 at 9:11 AM
5000 residents could be 2500 apartments. If they are mostly single bedroom then the number could be over 3000 apartments. That’s just for starters. Then there is the proposed work force of anything between 500 to 1500 people showing up every day and everyone has got a car since there isn’t any decent transport within cooeee. Will be terrific fun getting in and out of the so called “village” and then trying to get through East Boundary or North Road. If there is a major supermarket add another couple of hundred cars coming in.
December 7, 2016 at 9:15 AM
There should be no surprise that a forum is poorly attended or community consultation receives low response. People are busy with their own ‘backyard’ and the noise from various forms of media easily overwhelms local council communication/s
What’s severely lacking is a council that has vision and puts it forward for community response. A council that prods and challenges development at the scale of a Virginia park.
Why ask me or my neighbours what we think before they even form an idea or proposal of their own or bring facts to the table? Council is elected and planners are hired to do a job/task to work in our best interest and, I’m making an assumption here, to have a vision that they are working toward.
The fact is that outside of state government funded rail improvements, positive and progressive change is redundant in Glen Eira Tucker Ward.
I’ll remain positive in the hope that the newly elected councillors will bring positive change.
Rodney Andonopoulos
December 7, 2016 at 9:40 AM
You raise some good points Rodney. People are busy and currently inundated with amendments and developments galore in our wonderful municipality. Off the top of my head there are at least two amendments on exhibition – one in South Caulfield and one in McKinnon, plus the Ormond tower and countless development applications for 3 and 4 storeys apartments spread throughout the suburbs. All this does is concentrate opposition to a single issue, instead of people perhaps seeing the bigger picture. That bigger picture extends further than Tucker ward.
This council has no idea of the bigger picture and what is appropriate. Whether or not the newly elected councillors can make up for this lack of vision is highly questionable.
December 7, 2016 at 11:46 AM
Asking people to comment on some wishy washy drawings that say nothing is a waste of time for the community but not for the developer. Concerned resident is right. They can turn around and say we have had a year of consultation. No answers have been given as far as I can see on the crucial aspects of the development – how many apartments, how many car parking places, how will traffic be managed because a few more traffic lights will only make the area ten times worse, why do you need 8 storeys over most of the site if the aim is employment. Offices don’t have to be 8 storeys surely.
December 7, 2016 at 2:59 PM
Did anyone say anything about open space?
December 7, 2016 at 4:24 PM
No real discussion on this. Passing comments on village ‘squares’ and ‘connections’ with existing open space.
December 7, 2016 at 4:18 PM
I’m sure they didn’t as there are no dollars in open space… and without it children could become short sighted and everyone suffer from mental illness.
December 8, 2016 at 4:01 PM
Unfortunately,the residents deserve exactly what they are getting. Only those those effected by Council’s non transparent decisions make a hue and cry and majority are ignorant on what is happening in the Council and who are the councillors working with many hidden agenda’s. Candidates who knock on doors know that most of the residents know nothing on what is happening on Council other than roads and rubbish and we get road pots and rubbish lot voted in!
December 9, 2016 at 1:34 AM
This comment appears almost word for word the same as one posted by Oscar Lobo on Glen Eira Residents Action Group facebook page a fortnight ago…. hmmm