We have received several emails asking us to elaborate on our statement that council will be enlarging the activity centres and thus paving the way for more intense development throughout Glen Eira. This post explains our reasoning.
According to the planning scheme the ‘housing diversity’ areas include all those sites zoned as General Residential Zone, Residential Growth Zone, Commercial and Mixed Use. NO NEIGHBOURHOOD RESIDENTIAL ZONING (NRZ) IS INCLUDED IN HOUSING DIVERSITY. These come under the umbrella of ‘minimal change’ – ie the NRZ zones.The image below makes this clear
Thus we have the current situation where each and every ‘activity centre’ is zoned as either RGZ, GRZ, C1Z OR MUZ. Where these sites meet ‘minimal change’ (ie NRZ) then that determines the border of the respective activity centre.
If we are to believe what is written in council’s commissioned housing report, then all this is about to change. Here are a couple of screen dumps from this document which refer to NRZ sites WITHIN ACTIVITY CENTRES! As we’ve stated – there are no NRZ sites in any activity centre. The fact that this ‘research’ is done on this basis can only mean one thing in our view – council will be extending the borders to most activity centres. And once extended we would bet that the classification of these sites will not be NRZ any longer!
Isn’t it about time that council came clean on what it is really doing? How much longer will residents be kept in the dark? And how about council answering the most basic questions concerning:
- definite time lines
- what is ‘capacity’ and why do we even contemplate the need for another 20,000+ dwellings?
- how sustainable is any of this?
- what is council doing about parking and traffic management?
- what is council doing right now about amending the schedules to the zones?
- why can other councils keep working on amendment after amendment and council has done bugger all, except to rezone land for more development?
Glen Eira Debates 
May 30, 2017 at 9:12 AM
Our beloved State Government created a committee to review of the application of the “reformed” residential zones last year, and populated it with members from the development industry. Unsurprisingly, the committee recommended the government weaken existing zone protections, and the first step towards that was Amendment C110.
Amendment C110 increased height limits and removed multiple constraints on NRZ, making it “GRZ-Lite”. That will not be the last change. Managing Residential Development Advisory Committee [MRDAC] “found” that NRZ was used in areas where it wasn’t intended to be used. Expect future changes to include rezoning much NRZ land to GRZ.
I note that the MRDAC report claims NRZ applies to 80.8% of residentially zoned land in Glen Eira. Who supplied them that number? It is (a) wrong and (b) inconsistent with the Id report [NRZ…”covers almost 80% of residential zones in the City]. It is also different to what Members of Parliament and VCAT have quoted, their source being our Council. [None of them are comfortable stating their definitions of terms used either.]
It should leave us all wondering just how competent these bodies are. Council’s Manager Town Planning is pinning his hopes and reputation on 80.8% being correct.
May 30, 2017 at 11:05 AM
I have to agree with you Reprobate. Nrz is about to shrink and council is working out how best to introduce this. Only wish they could be upfront and honest with their residents instead of going through this consultation charade.
May 30, 2017 at 12:54 PM
Who cares if there’s room for another 50000 dog boxes. That doesn’t mean we should allow anything close to this number.