With an election around the corner, it is the opportune time for residents to gain the most leverage. It is also time to bypass council completely and head straight to those who have the ultimate power to make decisions.
We have sent off several versions of this letter (below) to all sides of the political spectrum. It is clear that council cannot be trusted to work in the best interests of its residents. We therefore urge all concerned residents to join us and lobby local and state politicians to ensure that council’s plans for the 12 storey interim controls are thwarted.
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Glen Eira Debates 
March 5, 2018 at 1:19 PM
Great letter. Pretty sure that Davis/Southwick/Judah will get plenty of ammo to beat Wynne round the head over this.
March 7, 2018 at 1:57 PM
Is it the same Judah who is working for industry associations in the property and construction?
March 5, 2018 at 1:47 PM
It is a good letter and the statistics are compelling. Glen Eira is being overdeveloped according to the long held ambitions of Newton, Akehurst, Hyams and other old councillors. It is now being reinvigorated by the new councillors who have fallen hook line and sinker for the never ending propaganda of the former. Athanasopolous and Sztrajt are the most disappointing in my mind judging on their recent voting patterns and comments.
March 5, 2018 at 1:56 PM
This should have been the theme of the Council letter to the Minister but they don’t want to represent us.
March 5, 2018 at 2:29 PM
Council’s stuff argues for around 850 new dwellings per year. The tables tell us that in three and a half years we’ve had about 5,200 approvals. Take away the single house replacement and that leaves about 4,500 which makes it an average of around 1300 per year in apartments. Nearly double what we need. Nowhere has council come close to answering this question of why we need more and more when the figures tell us that we’re already getting more than we need.
I agree completely with the post. Time to take things out of council’s hands and look for justice elsewhere. Election time is the perfect opportunity since every man and his dog will want to cash in on knocking the opposition. Labor is on the nose. Agreeing to this in marginal seats isn’t going to help them. The time is ripe for action.
March 5, 2018 at 4:27 PM
Council’s agenda is inconsistent with the facts so their approach has been just don’t do the important research. The facts have been summarised above in a few pages and they undermine the whole process. Council hasn’t consulted, they haven’t researched, they had a pre-determined outcome and again they have waisted everyones valuable time.
March 5, 2018 at 5:36 PM
Yup, they done more than wasted everyone’s valuable time. They have squandered I would hazard a guess hundreds of thousands on so called “experts” who have been paid to come up with the answers that council wants. That isn’t “research” – it is as you say working backwards from a pre-determined outcome. So much for integrity when it can be bought off.
March 5, 2018 at 6:11 PM
I’ve listened twice now to the recording from last council meeting. Hyams promised to explain why 20(4) was needed and Delahunty said the same and she hoped that others would explain it. No one did because the only explanation is that this rotten crowd want to get something through and not let the community have a proper say. They did that with the zones only ten times worse and then with the latest amendments for BBentleigh and Carnegie. This is how they operate. Shunt the unpopular through as quickly as possible and then act like its for our benefit. I would trust Pinnochio more than I trust any of these people.
March 6, 2018 at 1:10 PM
I am seeing things repeated over and over again like with all the secret deals with the mrc on Caulfield Village. Every promise made by councillors has been broken. The same is happening now. Start off with protecting heritage then decide that twelve storeys is the go. Ignore the hundreds of objections and shunt everything through in secret. It is unforgiveable what has been allowed to happen in Glen Eira in the last fifteen years.
March 5, 2018 at 8:27 PM
Who’s getting the pay off here? Car yards, big shot developers getting council to promise them heaps in return for nothing. Stinks!
March 5, 2018 at 10:20 PM
We need a IBACC investigation into Glen Eira as something is rotten, all the markers are there, excessive secrecy, the inability to answer simple questions, and what looks like a council in collusion with the bureaucrats in a cover up, either unwittingly or out of mistaken trust and loyalty, either way they a part of the of it.
There is big money being made here, and its only going to grossly inflated when East Village wedges it way to the forefront. Already our fledgling planning scheme looks like it as been purchased lock-stock and barrel. We need to know who did the selling, and who has done the buying. If our councillors had a half a backbone they would be thinking down this line.
March 7, 2018 at 1:47 PM
IBAC is not interested in such matters and so is Ombudsman.
March 6, 2018 at 1:58 PM
People that want the council decisions to go in their favour know how to go about it. They rely on an apathetic public and councillors that are easy to bamboozle. (We have afew of those) Lobbying the staff is easy. It has been going on for hundreds of years. Same formula. Both the council staff and the proponents believe it is their role to plan and develop our community. From time to time the press gets hold of it and slows things down. The Ministers staff are from the same group.
March 6, 2018 at 7:13 PM
More privatisation that does no favours to the ordinary resident but plenty for the developer/speculator/real estate agent. The issues are huge – https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/victorians-personal-property-details-to-be-sold-for-an-estimated-2-billion-20180306-p4z34o.html
March 6, 2018 at 9:28 PM
It doesn’t take much imagination to see the rorting that will happen once this gets into the hand of private enterprise. Like everything else that has ever been put into private hands expect the prices/fees to rocket skyhigh. Absolutely shocking to see how obese Tim Pallas has become gorging himself on the fat of the land.
March 7, 2018 at 10:02 AM
If you are a user of Land Use services, and I have been, you’d be concerned about the ramifications. We have a valuable resource that we own, and now we’re to fund the inflated salaries and substantial profit that companies demand for the same service. The conditions under which this public asset is being sold are far from clear. If the government truly believes it to be valuable, you’d have to wonder why it thinks it is incapable of monetizing it for public benefit without the commercial overheads. We do actually pay currently. How much more will we have to pay?
March 7, 2018 at 10:12 AM
One week on and there’s little evidence councillors knew what they were voting for or why. They had 3 hours to explain but in my view failed. We did learn the decisions were effectively made before the meeting through a secret agreement, possibly before Council even published the structure plans or considered the views of the community. They each had their own Panglossian moment on the public stage as if that was sufficient.