Council is wonderful in producing stats that sound scary and ostensibly support their case. More often than not, these stats tell only half the story. For example this paragraph from the Activity Centre Strategy –
State Government statistics indicate that over the last five years (2011–2016), Glen Eira has experienced significant change with a population increase of 11,233 and 4,300 new dwellings constructed (page 147)
Or this effort –
Recent statistics released by State Government (Victoria in Future 2016) indicate that Glen Eira’s population is likely to increase by a further 15 per cent over the next 15 years, resulting in the need for an additional 9,000 dwellings.(page 159 and repeated in the glossy section at page 22).
So exactly what do these figures mean? 9000 new dwellings sounds like a hell of a lot and is meant to – but this is over a projected 15 year period. Hence all Glen Eira requires to meet its population growth according to these figures is a measly 600 net new dwellings per year! Hardly enough to justify the strategy and its ambition to hand over more and more land to developers.
Nor do these figures take into account what has been happening in Glen Eira for the past 5 to 6 years. Australian Bureau of Statistics data on building approvals provides a window into the rampant development that has already occurred. Building approvals are development applications that have already received their permits and have been given the green light to begin construction. Here are the ABS figures for new dwellings –
2011/12 – 912
2012/13 – 957
2013/14 – 1,231
2014/15 – 1,786
2015/16 – 1,680
2016/17 – 1520 (end of March 2017)
TOTAL – 8086
This figure of 8086 new dwellings DOES NOT INCLUDE:
- The 1200+ new dwellings for Caulfield Village which have already been granted their ‘permits’ via the approved Incorporated Plan and various Development Plans
- Another, 2000, 3000, 4000(?) potential apartments for Virginia Estate.
- Nor does this figure of 8086 include all the permits which have been granted but are yet to be taken up and construction started (and hence are still awaiting their building permits)
- Set down for decision Tuesday night, we get the recommendation for another 87 new dwellings! The meeting before, 18 new dwellings plus refusal for 169 which will end up at VCAT and in all likelihood get at least half of this number. These would not have been added to building or planning permit state registers as yet. Thus, in two council meetings we have just under another 200 net new dwellings in Glen Eira. Go back a couple of more council meetings and the picture is the same.
So what is the take home message for residents?
- At the current rate of development, Glen Eira will be able to cater for projected population growth NOT IN 2031 BUT BY 2021!
- 600 net new dwellings is the required ‘quota’ per year according to all recent projections. Glen Eira is averaging close to triple this amount per year.
- Given the above, WHY IS THIS STRATEGY DETERMINED TO INCREASE DEVELOPMENT AND WHY THE SECRECY ON HOW RESIDENTIAL AMENITY IS TO BE PROTECTED?
By way of summary, here is what the strategy wants to happen in order to facilitate further development. This may sound innocuous and to be merely repeating the current mantra of housing diversity versus minimal change and thus directing development to ‘appropriate’ spots. It is the extent of expansion, the vague references to ‘strategic sites’ plus ‘arterial roads’ and the upgrading of local centres to neighbourhood centres, or neighbourhood centres to major activity centres that is the concern.
CLICK TO ENLARGE – Couldn’t council have produced a far more legible document that could be read clearly without the need for a magnifying glass?
Glen Eira Debates 
May 22, 2017 at 10:02 AM
This analysis provides a lot of perspective and indicates that with Caulfield Village and Virginia Park that only about 5,000 new dwellings are needed over the next 15 years to achieve the projection of 9,000 new dwellings. This is an average of 333 additional new dwellings per annum compared to the current average of about 1,400 per annum. Not convinced that the Council strategy reflects this situation!!!
May 22, 2017 at 10:49 AM
Not convinced that the Council strategy reflects this situation!!!
You bet it doesn’t.
May 22, 2017 at 11:03 AM
Nothing that I’ve read in this strategy gives a clue about the zones and whether or not they will be pulled back a bit. There are many vague utterances about residential areas and nothing more. The concentration on the commercial areas for the most part leaves surrounding residential areas out to dry. Neighbourhood centres won’t get any structure plans for years yet. They will be crucified even more. The main message that is coming through in all this is that council is prepared to sell out its residents. Their ‘repurposing’ of council land, libraries for private development is not acceptable. There is still the railway land and council seems to be entirely complicit and agreeing with Wynne’s value added capture plans for all these sites. If it’s 13 storeys for North Road it will be 15 storeys for Carnegie, and maybe 10 for Hughesdale, Bentleigh and McKinnon.
May 22, 2017 at 11:18 AM
It’s jobs and growth scenario, if we are going to have a cafe/coffee lead recovery, we are going to need an ever growing population of people living in small apartment, spicing up their lives with a walk and a piece of cake and a coffee. The trouble is there is no plan B to cope with cheapness of the constructions, the ever increasing crowded roads, and lack of open space or any other type of space to provide the facilities needed for this growing populations.
The current Glen Eira open space strategy now just a few years old, with a lifetime expected to stretch out to the year 2025 or thereabouts, was a failure being heavily rewritten by Burke and Newton to cover their failed arses, will leave with less open space per head of population than we had back in 2013.
Which may have been OK if we had even the average amount of open space requirement, however we already running at over an 80% deficiency of the average Melbourne municipality and this is going to decline even further.
Our last open space strategy was so polluted, it failed to even meet the minimum standard of what it should have done. We need another open space strategy for Glen Eira NOW.
May 22, 2017 at 11:30 AM
A key question is how many dwellings and how many people would be in Glen Eira if the entire municipality was redeveloped to the maximum extent permitted by the current controls in the Planning Scheme. Would it even be able to function? Overwhelmingly residents of Glen Eira have to go elsewhere for employment. They spend longer than ever travelling there. The activity centres are congested. The roads are increasingly dangerous from over-reliance upon on-street parking. We don’t have enough open space and what we have is poorly distributed. The range of services in activity centres is diminishing. A significant fraction of the municipality is expected to endure poor amenity that the rest demand for themselves. Indefinite growth is unsustainable. And under the current system we have no control over any of these outcomes.
May 22, 2017 at 12:52 PM
Youre correct sustainability or sustainable living is the issue. The GE Environmental Sustainability Strategy is immature in its scope and its responses. Clearly unwilling to tackle or even comment on most of the above comments.
The town hall bureaucrats responsible for this strategy have show a high degree of ignorance in their thinking, whether this ignorance is a self serving stalling process to hold off the inevitable; as not to interfere with the developers wish list of total deregulation, or just plain ignorance it’s hard to tell.
Either way it needs to be contracted out to more professional people than understand the issues.
May 22, 2017 at 5:18 PM
Off topic – but harks back to an earlier post on the Elster Creek catchment area and flooding issues. Readers will remember that a Memorandum of Understanding was to be signed by Kingston, Bayside, Port Phillip and Glen Eira. Thus far, not a single word out of Glen Eira.
The Port Phillip minutes also tell us that there is NEXT WEEK a meeting between all the CEO’s of these councils. Again silence from our mob. Here is the passed resolution from Port Phillip –
Moved Crs
Baxter/Crawford
That Council:
1.1
Endorses the
Memorandum of
Understanding (
Attachment 1)
that:
Defines the drainage problem of concern to communities in the Elster
Creek Catchment
Sets out the core principles to promote collaboration, a shared approach
and a commitment to work together, being expressed by Mel
bourne
Water, City of Port Phillip, City of Glen Eira, City of Kingston and City of
Bayside, to enable investigation of improvement opportunities.
1.2
Authorises the Mayor to sign the Memorandum of Understanding
1.3
Authorises the Chief Executive Officer
to represent Council to progress
collaborative action on the Elster Creek Catchment in accordance with the
principles outlined in the MoU.
A vote was taken and the MOTION was CARRIED unanimously.
May 22, 2017 at 5:29 PM
Bayside has also announced it.
May 22, 2017 at 9:05 PM
I don’t get it, why wont Glen Eira bring this issue into the public forum like the other Councils?
May 22, 2017 at 11:31 PM
The Glen Eira councillors may well have been briefed about the situation through their briefing meeting. we don’t know if they have or if they haven’t been briefed.
There are Known knowns and known unknowns,
And in this case we residents know the known, which is we didn’t know. Although this 4 council MoU “Memorandum of Understanding”,was public or common knowledge in Bayside and Port Phillip circles with Kingston remaining an unknown at this stage.
We now know Port Phillip councils has cleared the way for their Mayor Bernadene Voss to ratify the Memorandum of Understanding, leaving Bayside and Glen Eira and Kingston to do the same. I personally attended two Bayside council meeting recently and this MoU was mentioned at both meeting. Bayside has nothing to lose by signing, and by what has already been said at their meetings they are keen to do so. Melbourne Water has already made overtures to help with the proposed flood mitigation works at Elsternwick Park North as a sweetener.
It wouldn’t be too far fetched to surmise all this secrecy and silence could be just part of a Glen Eira style cover up that began even before the MoU has been signed.
It’s just a matter of time before this Memorandum of Understanding becomes a unknown known dead fish in the creek in downstream Elwood as far as Glen Eira is concerned.
May 23, 2017 at 9:38 AM
Met with a few concerned residents to prepare presentations for planning conference re Amendment 143 88-100 Mckinnon Rd. Corner of Wheatley Rd where the round about is. Originally proposed MUZ which council proposed abandoned then put forward GRZ2. No consultation on this decision. Mixed messages from councillors via emails. Completely confusing ! Glen Eira. Council at its best once again lack of transparency!