Elsternwick and Carnegie development height limits: Residents blast plan
Emma-Jayne Schenk, Caulfield Glen Eira Leader
August 7, 2018 11:30am
NEW height limits for Elsternwick and Carnegie have been blasted by residents who claim they’ve been cheated because they don’t live in a marginal seat.
The interim State Government planning rules approved this week outline discretionary heights of two to 12 storeys in Elsternwick and eight to 12 storeys for the commercial area on Dandenong Road in Carnegie.
Lower limits of two to five storeys were approved for Bentleigh — a marginal seat — and two to four storeys in Carnegie’s Koornang Rd commercial area and surrounding residential zones.
Planning Minister Richard Wynne said the limits respected the area’s low-scale shopping strips, residential heritage and gardens, and “would provide certainty for developers and residents”.
Woolworths’ development proposal for 10-16 Selwyn St, Elsternwick.
But key campaigner and Caulfield South resident Sandy Togias questioned how such high-density living respected the area and said politics and the upcoming election had clearly come into play.
“It’s interesting that a marginal seat like Bentleigh gets two to five storeys but a safe seat like Elsternwick gets 12,” she said.
The measures will be in place until Glen Eira Council develops permanent controls, including the Elsternwick Structure Plan, which details 12-storey limits and opposed by more than 100 residents.
Ms Togias said much of the community staunchly opposed high-rise development in Glen Eira, especially Elsternwick, but had not been listened to.
“Once 12 storeys is applied for, the chances of reducing this to six, eight or 10 are very difficult,” she said.
“This now gives about a year’s grace for developers to build whatever the hell they like.”
It comes as residents fight against Woolworths’ plans for a 13-storey, 180-apartment complex at the former ABC studios on Selwyn St. Under new guidelines, it’s believed the maximum height allowed would be 10-storeys.
Opposition planning spokesman David Davis said a Liberal government would review the 12-storey height limit in Elsternwick with an intention to lower it, if elected in November.
He said the Liberals would also restore Neighbourhood Residential Zone protections.
“The caps in Bentleigh and Carnegie are too little too late and allow an absolute open season in the surrounding streets of these areas where the neighbourhood zone protections have been stripped away by Daniel Andrews,” Mr Davis said.
“These small residential streets will now become the target.”
He said Labor’s recent scrapping of visitor parking requirements in large side-street developments would cause further chaos and compromise residential amenity and parking.
In 2017, the government approved height limits up to five storeys in Bentleigh and seven storeys within Carnegie.
Glen Eira Debates 
August 7, 2018 at 4:55 PM
Ms Togias’ comment is completely accurate. Once 12 storeys are permitted then the chances of any planning panel or the minister deciding 18 months later that these heights should be reduced to 8 storeys is pie in the sky wishful thinking. Council knows this full well. I expect that there will now be a huge publicity campaign about consultation and how this is only the first step in a long process. All spin. Council has ignored all community feedback. They determined long ago what they wanted and in private and secret discussions with government and developers have got their wish. My wish now is that instead of spending further money on useless consultation that this money be put to good purposes such as the purchase of additional open space for those residents who will be surrounded by apartment blocks of up to 180 dwellings and for those new residents living in this concrete jungle. I further hope that every single current councillor has many sleepless nights over their complicity in this major con of residents.
August 7, 2018 at 6:22 PM
I’ve no faith in the libs but this is manna from heaven for them with 4 months to an election.
August 7, 2018 at 9:40 PM
Unbelievable stuff from council and Wyne.
August 7, 2018 at 11:21 PM
Boy oh boy all this nonsense is getting hard to keep up with and tolerate, I doubt if we are even halfway through all this arse saving bull.
The big news today is Australia will hit 25 million people tonight with Melbourne and Sydney taking the brunt of the population growth and Glen Eira possibly leading the pack in this unsustainable growth model and ill planned building boom. to make room for what looks like a immigration scam coupled with a developers scam to cream off millions of dollars by selling our city’s amenity. Whilst residents are sidelined and get dumped with crowded schools, overflowing hospitals, clogged roads, streets full of parked cars day and night, high rent, skyrocketing rates, decreased public open space and private open space, tree decline, more residential noise and air pollution from the ever increasing traffic flows. Sporting clubs that cannot cope with the influx of membership, more severe flooding through less permeability.
Councillors please take note you should be looking years ahead of this present game you have inherited, and planning for the future.
We need all of the following
1/ Urban Forest Strategy to protect our biodiversity and shade our suburbs and help control summer temperatures and salvage some quiet relaxing areas from this over development craze.
2/ A sustainable living strategy to guide us to sustainable city of the future
3/ Another open space strategy as the old one was a rorted by Newton and his cronies to cover their inability to face the reality of their incompetent planning system
3/ A sustainable traffic strategy that recognise that ever increasing traffic flows will have an impact on the lives and health of residents
4/ A improved form of democracy for Glen Eira residents so they can be heard and listened to and a reporting system that show this is happening (as all GE councils since 1996 have failed to represent residents and act in the best interest for the wellbeing of residents rather than the interests of developers and bureaucrats.
I could go on……
August 11, 2018 at 11:55 AM
Anonymous says:
Excellent comments. The point regarding what appears to be a correlation between immigration and property development seems to bear merit from general observation, off market sales and grandfathering of certain properties along Koornang Rd, south of the shopping strip.
As a resident of over 25 years, watching the livability of Carnegie vanishing on a continuous scale is very sad and councils over the last few years have a lot to answer for…….as do the state governments.
The removal of local railway gate crossings has basically been made irrelevant by all the rampant development, resulting in traffic gridlock abounding the whole shopping centre, particularly during peak hours….and the full scale of the future development has only just began.
Indeed, we could go on….:(
August 8, 2018 at 7:44 AM
The biggest sell out from a Council ever, they are a disgrace.
August 8, 2018 at 2:52 PM
Pardon me for going off topic, but has anyone experienced a massive increase in their rates. Mine involved a double digit increase. I thought the State Government had a cap. Outrageous.
August 8, 2018 at 3:00 PM
Yes, there is a cap of 2.5% but from discussions with residents it would appear that the increases far exceed this cap. We suggest:
1. determine the current auction results for your area and compare with the rate notice
2. calculate the increase in waste, waster, etc. and deduct these figures
3. The most important point is to demand clear answers from council as to how many residents are paying more than the 2.5% cap and how many are paying less – given that council’s argument is that very few properties will pay more than the ‘average’.
August 8, 2018 at 3:11 PM
Thanks. It’s outrageous. Because of the absence of a parking strategy the street cleaner can’t clean the street so we have to do it ourselves. Fairly much all we get is a half decent rubbish removal service and a Council that is excellent at wasting money.
I’m hopeful there is an independent appeals process of some sort.
August 8, 2018 at 3:17 PM
VCAT!!!!!!