A very long post, but incredibly important.
Following months and months of public consultation on structure planning for Glen Eira’s activity centres we finally get the first glimpse of the ‘design guidelines’ for Bentleigh, Elsternwick and Carnegie and the ‘big picture’ for the other activity centres (neighbourhood centres).
Residents should be very, very alarmed with what is another nebulous and poorly explicated effort from Council. The only thing that is clear is that very little of what residents have stated they desire has been incorporated into these waffly documents. For example:
- Height limits of 3 to 4 storeys, especially in ‘neighbourhood centres’ was stated time and again. It now is on the drawing board that suburbs such as McKinnon, Ormond, Bentleigh East,etc can expect buildings much higher depending on zoning. Needless to say not one single word of justification is forthcoming as to why 8 or 12 storeys is warranted anywhere. Further, another item in the agenda recommends that a permit be granted for a 6 storey development in McKinnon Road, McKinnon. The rot has well and truly started for our neighbourhood centres!
- Below is 2 examples of what we mean. Please read carefully
As for the major activity centres themselves we find the following:
- There is still the intent to flog off public land for high rise commercial development
- Multi storey car parks are still in the picture
- Structure plans will NOT BE forthcoming by December 2017
- Parking plans still belong to the ‘never-never’
- Heritage is ‘expendable’ and dependent on where it is – ie it is okay for 3 and 4 storeys in heritage overlays
- The only potential concession to heritage from Bentleigh is the Bendigo & Daley Streets overlay (which is zoned Residential Growth Zone). Given that the map below is shaded green but also includes the ‘site specific’ addendum, we have no idea whether this means these streets will be rezoned to 1 or 2 storeys, or whether 3 and 4 storeys are still on the cards.
- The red areas identified as ‘strategic site’ and given the green light for between 5 and 8 storeys are a major worry since they abut areas zoned General Residential – ie 3 storeys.
Conclusions
- It is obvious that council is gearing up for more and more development. These plans are merely facilitating this process and totalling ignoring the vast majority of community feedback.
- There is no intention of reviewing the zones – only expanding the borders of the activity centres.
- No real strategic justification exists for any of the height recommendations
- Census figures are available, yet these documents are still touting 2011 figures!
- Urban design as carried out by every other single council contains information on setbacks etc. This is non existent in these documents.
- Residents are being drowned in paper. That is undoubtedly the intention we believe. To provide not information, but dribs and drabs that are near impossible to decipher. There can be absolutely no excuse for the lack of proper legends, clear and precise images, and language that actually is more than spin and useless jargon.
We will comment in greater detail in the days ahead.
PS: We forgot to mention that readers need to pay careful attention to those areas now marked as light green and orange. In the current planning scheme these sites are zoned as NRZ (ie 2 storeys). They have now been given the ‘green light’ for 3 storeys. Also, the section at the corner of Brewer and Thomas Street is now earmarked for 4 storeys from its previous 2 storey height limit. Please also remember that only a short while ago a public question asked council whether they intend to rezone any NRZ sites to GRZ or RGZ. These documents provide plenty of evidence that countless properties will now become 3 or 4 storeys and possibly even higher. We do not believe that council wasn’t aware of this at the time of their ‘response’ – since it definitely wasn’t an ‘answer’ to the public question.
Glen Eira Debates 
July 21, 2017 at 3:31 PM
There’s a lot of text to wade through for detailed analysis, but I notice that Council is targeting me for 4 storeys in a minimal change area, without providing any strategic justification and without demonstrating how such a dramatic change meets the Objectives. Well Aiden, why?
July 21, 2017 at 3:59 PM
Unbelievable bit of crap. This is not planning. It’s designed to dupe residents and give out helping hands to developer mates. What pisses me right off is that I’m paying for this bullshit. Sorry about the language but I’m so angry. I want to know who is really pulling the strings here and if our dumb councillors will go along quietly.
July 21, 2017 at 6:01 PM
I love the Lego-land schematic diagram with the tree on the 3rd or 4th floor recess, this has to be the biggest joke ever.
Can you imagine getting down the pruned branches via the lift, or the quantity of dirt up in the lift when it needs a refresh, this type of stuff is total fantasy and they know it.
July 21, 2017 at 6:51 PM
Council wouldn’t care what they put out for public consumption since it doesn’t matter one iota. The agenda is set. Deals have been made and all this is designed to do is fulfill the requirments for “public consultation” and to fool some unsuspecting souls. If someone can locate one sentence of justification for any of the proposed height limits then they should be knighted.
July 21, 2017 at 7:26 PM
Gobsmacked and double gobsmacked. This is the biggest load of rubbish that council has ever produced because it in no way matches what people said they want and the nuts and bolts are missing. Not one single statistic that is up to date. Not one single explanation as to why we should have to put up with 12 storey buildings and more apartments. Not one single explanation why the vast majority of roads which aren’t even main roads are now going to have 3 storeys instead of the current 2 storeys. No reason given why they think that employment will come to Glen Eira by allowing more offices. The best is the heaps of stupid pictures from all over the state. They probably couldn’t find suitable ones in Glen Eira because the city has been destroyed by them.
July 21, 2017 at 9:19 PM
Absolutely laughable how the document repeatedly mentions 9,000 more dwellings in Glen Eira by 2031 yet Mullen and his cohorts detail a strategy which, if “successful”, will quite clearly result in that figure being obliterated. The sudden mentions of “larger neighbourhood centres” should concern all residents in those areas.
July 22, 2017 at 10:15 AM
The developer plan is to get it all in the end, every single street, it’s the job of the bureaucrats to give it to them chunk by chunk.
The Chinese will just keep send plane after plane load of people to fill the new developments. The bigger developments are being financed with Chinese money built out of Chinese materials, and increasingly using Chinese labour for construction.
We are selling over a hundred years of hard won amenity, good streets, treed neighbourhoods, schools, you name it, for peanuts.
We are being sold-out at every level of Government, who fear a down-turn towards recession, unemployment more than selling the family silver.
The era jobs and growth, and nothing else matters is here to stay, India has been on the steady rise and it cannot be long before their ill gotten gains will need a safe haven,so expect another bout of high-rise, concrete and congestion.
Money talks, residents sellout and unsustainable living flourishes, the tombstones of greed, bad planning are on view from almost anywhere in Glen Eira now. I fear the worse it yet to come.
July 22, 2017 at 11:16 AM
There is no rhyme or reason for any of these draft documents and certainly no justification for anything. I’m still struggling to find out what is the overall vision. Do we need more and more apartments and if so how are they going to ensure that many will be three bedrooms and decent size when Wynne refused to do this with his better apartment standards.
I’m totally befuddled by comparing Bentleigh and Carnegie with Virginia Estate. The latter is a huge site and council has decided that on 24 hectares 8 storeys is sufficient. Carnegie though can have 12 storeys and Bentleigh also 8 storeys when these places are surrounded totally by residential.
No councillor has ever talked about density and given any indication as to housing targets. The 2016 census shows that Glen Eira is already full of apartments and the population forecasts haven’t been met. That should be enough to put a clamp on development and not encourage it as these proposed plans are doing.
July 22, 2017 at 12:51 PM
Needs placed on what criteria, “jobs and growth” or housing?
“Prosper Australia has for years been conducting research into how many of Australia’s 9.8 million homes are left vacant. Its major finding is that of the 1.7 million homes in greater Melbourne alone, about 82,000 are vacant, or 4.8 per cent. That research has been cited by a recent United Nations study on the pernicious effects of the financialisation of the housing sector, and has likely been a key reason for the adoption of a vacant housing tax, and probably in Canada as well”
On the above we could rule out housing, so its jobs to help keep down the crime gangs smashing their way through are shopping centres by day and looting our suburb at night.
Is there any evidence to suggest that bigger cities deliver better community outcomes, we are being sold the idea that big is better and we need the financially charged real estate business along with the building industry to deliver us jobs and wealth.
This rationale may be true on a economic basis alone; but how does it stack up on a social and an environmental basis, the last two are always conveniently left out when you let the financier plan your future.
I believe and its looks like this economic path alone will deliver us an increasingly unstable and fragile looking future.
Without some serious thought and planning into “what is a sustainable city” and what is a “socially sustainable community” and what is environmentally sustainable” we will continue down the path of developing environmental and social problems that may not be solvable, this time is looming towards us very quickly we are living on borrowed time. We are as Tim Flannery aptly discribed “The Future Eaters”
I guess some of the 82,000 vacant housing units retrofitted with window bars and steel doors and inmate fitted with GPS trackers will make excellent detention units. Invest in crime now, there’s “Jobs and Growth” here.
July 22, 2017 at 12:12 PM
We’re bein played for suckers like always. Bet yas that the party line will be this is only the first stage more to come and consultation is still happening.
July 22, 2017 at 8:23 PM
Where can I find this document? I can’t find it on the Glen Eira Website.
July 22, 2017 at 8:41 PM
You can find the relevant documents by viewing the current agenda on council’s website.
July 23, 2017 at 12:05 PM
Thank you! This document is in the wrong place on the Council’s website. Tucked away in the agenda pdf for the next council meeting does not make this document easy to find.
July 23, 2017 at 9:58 AM
I always thought that each generation worked to provide a better standard of living for the next generation. I was horrified to see what Glen Eira really plan to do with our suburbs. How many apartments do we need? Why do we need them? It is crazy to build such small apartments. It’s not healthy to live in such confined spaces. Our children can’t get financial security. Too many are working part time or on contracts. Buying a house on a suburban block is not an option any more for most young families. Yet we continue to let greed drive decisions that affect residents. So many GE residents having their quality of living gone. What can they do? Put up or sell? There are a lot of residents appalled at their fate. This is shocking news for many Bentleigh residents.