Councillor Performance

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July 18, 2017

Upgrades?

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance
[4] Comments 

We’ve commented before on what can only be described as council’s profligacy in spending millions of dollars on ‘upgrades’ that residents have not asked for nor truly want. The latest example is the ‘upgrade’ to Harleston Park playground. The budget has set aside $650,000 plus another $330,000 for public toilets. We believe that by the time landscaping occurs, the costs will be well over a million dollars. Remember, council has yet to prove it can stick to any budget,  with major projects time and time again costing far more than first indicated.

On the one hand we have councils screaming poor because of the State Government’s rate capping. On the other hand millions of dollars are being expended on projects that are highly questionable. Recent examples of highly suspect proposals that have raised the ire of the majority of residents include:

  • The purchase of 9 Aileen Avenue, South Caulfield for $2.1m and which is now rented out.
  • The creation of a ‘park’ between Fitzgibbon and Eskdale for the stated amount of $450,000 – both of these within a stone’s throw of nearby parks
  • The expenditure of $11m that council admits to for Booran Reservoir, but which we believe is far in excess of this cost – plus an area of urban forest equalling 11% of the site that is closed off to the public entirely.

All of these projects have not been embraced fully by residents and the current feedback on the Harleston Park proposals continues this trend. The vast majority of responses question the attempt to change a passive area into another Booran Road type Disneyland. More importantly, we have to wonder at the wisdom of council’s budgeting and its agenda. For example:

  • Why is Camden Ward the flavour of the month, especially when areas such as Carnegie are experiencing the greatest amount of development and no attempt has been made to increase public open space in this precinct?
  • Council, unlike other municipalities, has no playground policy that we know of. Thus ad hoc planning again!

The central question however should be whether residents would prefer spending more of our money on expanding open space instead of pouring more and more concrete into existing open space? – remember the $282,000 for concrete plinths!

It all comes back to priorities. Yes, facilities need upgrading, and yes, this can be expensive. But we absolutely reject the over-the-top spending on ‘upgrades’ that other councils can do for a quarter of the cost because their vision and programming is so vastly different. What is needed in Glen Eira in our view is not mega palaces that cost the earth but a concentration on expanding existing open space. That is impossible when the vast majority of the open space levy is spent on proposals such as the Harleston Park redevelopment.

 

July 15, 2017

More and More!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance
[4] Comments 

Melbourne council areas with the biggest growth in apartment projects

Christina Zhoutwitter Domain Reporter Jul 15, 2017

Alistair Howe was gutted when he found out his neighbours would be selling their two adjoining Caulfield North houses to apartment developers.

Within an hour, he decided to join them – spurred on by the thought of living next to a multi-storey building – and offered up his family home of 18 years for sale.

The neighbours hope their combined 1717-square-metre block on Hawthorn Road will capture increasing developer interest in Glen Eira, where significant levels of apartment construction is planned.

There were 307 units approved in projects of at least four storeys in Glen Eira during the five months to May — more than double the 135 approved at the same period last year, an analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics building data by Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson showed.

The number of approvals in Glen Eira trails those given the green light in the councils of Melbourne, Stonnington, Yarra and Boroondara, which alone had 559 apartments approved — more than quadruple the 119 last year.

Greater density is generally encouraged along transport corridors to protect the character of the neighbourhoods.

Mr Howe said he raised a family with five children in his three-bedroom house, and expected to live there until he was “too old”.

He added he had “mixed emotions” about the sale, but decided to sell together because it made more financial sense.

“I felt gutted initially because I suddenly thought ‘well, I don’t want to have a three-storey apartment beside me,’” he said. “Then within an hour, I made the decision that I’d join their sale.”

The owners are hoping for between $5 million and $5.5 million for the row of three houses, and would split the sale price based on their land size.

The successful bidder at the July 26 auction would also have the first right of refusal to buy another neighbouring house, with a single dwelling covenant.

202 Hawthorn Road, Caulfield North 

Combining the properties would open up the site to larger scale developments, Gary Peer director Adam Joske said, and it could also achieve a premium of more than 10 per cent.

Although the City of Melbourne continued to record the most approvals for high-rise apartments, the number in the pipeline is weakening. There were 1357 apartments approved from January to May, almost 900 fewer than the same time last year.

Dr Wilson said there could be a perception from developers that the CBD market — where there had been record levels of development — might be over-supplied.

“But I do think it will turn around because the Melbourne market generally is still under-supplied,” he said, adding that prices were rising strongly.

Angie Zigomanis, BIS Oxford Economics senior manager, said tougher rules for foreign investors — prolific buyers in central Melbourne — could have had an impact.

Australian banks tightened lending criteria for offshore buyers against the backdrop of the Chinese government limiting the amount of money moving offshore. On top of this, the Victorian government more than doubled the stamp duty surcharge for foreign buyers last year, from 3 to 7 per cent.

UDIA Victoria chief executive Danni Addison believed it was a case of the market adjusting to changes in planning policy, including height controls and setbacks in the CBD and the new apartment design standards.

“It takes people a while to go back to the drawing board in terms of their project feasibility and work out how to recast the vision,” she said.

Ms Addison said there was also a clear correlation between the increase in planned apartments in the inner and middle rings and demand.

Boutique developments in well-serviced areas such as Boroondara and Glen Eira appealed to downsizers who wanted to stay in the area and young families who could not afford a family home, she said.

Source: https://www.domain.com.au/news/melbourne-council-areas-with-the-biggest-growth-in-apartment-projects-20170715-gxadgh/

 

July 13, 2017

Still The Development Capital!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance
[8] Comments 

Glen Eira remains the development capital of the south east. The ABS figures above represent building permits granted this financial year and up to the end of May 2017 – ie 11 months worth.  We repeat that both Port Phillip and Stonnington are special cases given that the former has just on 25% of its municipality designated as Commercial and Capital City zoning, whilst Stonnington has triple the amount of land zoned Commercial in comparison to Glen Eira’s 3%.

The figures prove beyond a doubt that Council’s land use hierarchy has been a dismal failure in that the vast majority of development HAS NOT occurred in the Commercial areas but in quiet residential streets that unfortunately are zoned as General Residential.

Readers should also note the percentage of houses compared to units for each municipality – again showing Glen Eira’s concentration of apartments, in suburbs that are already bursting at the seams with overdevelopment. Yet the revealed housing report for the current structure planning, would appear to indicate that there is more development in council’s agenda given the upgrading of 3 local centres to Neighbourhood Centres. This can only mean one thing – more land to be earmarked as GRZ or RGZ! And of course, the above figures do not include the 1100+ apartments for Caulfield Village or the thousands that will end up at Virginia Estate.

The most essential questions remain unanswered by council –

  • What is capacity?
  • What is the maximum density?
  • What is the cost for adequate open space, drainage, etc and who will pay and when?
 

July 11, 2017

How Transparent?

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[5] Comments 

Council has published the Terms of Reference for its Community Advisory Group for the East Village project. Ostensibly, the creation of this advisory committee is a positive step, if somewhat belated in that the first draft of the resulting structure plan has already been set.

What concerns us even more than the question of timing,  is how  transparently this committee will operate, how it will report,  and how much notice will be taken of community rep views. The terms of reference (see below) do not fill us with confidence that this will be anything except another public relations exercise designed to provide the illusion of working with the community.

Please note the following:

  • No mention is made of councillors. Are they excluded entirely from any involvement in this committee – from selecting residents to actually partaking in the meetings?
  • Why is all responsibility granted to officers in terms of selection, etc?
  • Why is there no formal council resolution that endorses these terms of reference?
  • Why is there no mention of reporting requirements to the wider community?
  • Why is there the possibility that the Victorian Planning Authority and others may attend, when it was specifically stated by the Mayor that this is a committee expressly set up to work exclusively with council?
  • Given that the next iteration of the structure planning work is supposed to be in July (ie urban design/building guidelines) then how many times will this committee actually meet?

 

July 8, 2017

How Important Is Heritage?

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Council Meeting(s), GE Planning, GE Service Performance
[5] Comments 

At the last council meeting, and following the wide media coverage, this resolution was passed –

Moved: Cr Delahunty Seconded: Cr Silver

That Council requests the Minister for Planning to prepare, adopt and approve a Planning Scheme Amendment in accordance with Section 20(4) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 for an interim heritage control over the property at 450 Dandenong Road, Caulfield North.

All well and good, but there is no guarantee that the Minister will accede to this request. Nor do we know whether council has in fact conducted any heritage evaluation of the building in order to provide sound strategic justification. In short, is this simply another example of an ad hoc reactive measure to recent publicity?

The same old questions surface time and time again –

  • Why is it that other councils can be so proactive on heritage?
  • Why hasn’t council allocated funds to ensure more than an ‘update’ of a ‘Reference Document’ that has existed for 15 years but never been included as such in the planning scheme?
  • Why must residents wait for at least another 2 years before there is the chance to include other properties such as the Dandenong Road one onto the Heritage listing in the Planning Scheme? Why can’t residents start nominating sites now? Why can’t the work begin now?

In March 2017 Council applied to advertise its ‘updated’ policy and to include this document only as a ‘Reference Document’ in the Planning Scheme.  The officer report specifically noted the following –

What should also be noted by readers is that Reference Documents have very little influence in decision making as stated in the Government’s Practice Note 13 — –Reference documents have only a limited role in decision-making as they are not part of the planning scheme. They do not have the status of incorporated documents or carry the same weight. (Planning Practice Note 13: Incorporated & Reference Documents)

Stonnington by contrast has done its homework and has come up with an amendment that seeks to include 60 new sites at the same time into its Heritage Overlays. (Agenda item for July 2017) None of this one by one ad hoc approach that is favoured by Glen Eira and which according to Stonnington is far from cost effective.

Conclusion?

We see no reason why Glen Eira cannot proceed along similar lines to Stonnington – unless of course there is no money for heritage consultants. That comes back to priorities. When a budget is willing to spend $282,000 on concrete plinths, instead of using this money to preserve our past, then we claim that council priorities are way out of kilter with what most people would want. Of course, we have never been asked what our real priorities are and where we would like our money spent!

The tragedy is that by the time council gets around to investigating what other properties should be included in a heritage overlay it will be too late.

 

July 4, 2017

The ‘Excuses’ Keep Coming!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance
[5] Comments 

We’re repeating the gist of one of our previous posts since the Glen Eira Leader (below) provides Council’s ‘response’ through the Mayor. As we’ve stated, year after year the same poor results in planning, traffic, etc. rear their ugly heads – yet, if the survey can be ‘criticised’ because it is ‘perception based’, then surely this also applies to council’s good results regarding rubbish and the service centre? Not a word on this of course.

Readers might also find it informative to go back 5 years and see what councillors had to say (especially Hyams and Esakoff who are still on council) on equally bad results in 2012 – even before the introduction of the zones? [See: https://gleneira.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/community-dissatisfaction-survey/ ]

 

June 30, 2017

Virginia Estate – Council Outdoes Gillon & Co!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Council Meeting(s), GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[21] Comments 

Council has published its ‘draft’ Structure Plan for the development of Virginia Estate. It has also announced that in the next few weeks it will be calling for expressions of interest for residents to partake in a Community Reference Group. A tad too late we suggest since the ‘draft’ has already been formulated and given past experience very little is likely to change.

The only ‘improvement’ that is clear is the statement that a 1 hectare public open space will be included. Issues regarding schools and transport are still being ‘negotiated’ with the State Government.

The most disturbing aspect of this ‘draft’ Structure Plan is that council’s nominated height limits are in fact even higher than the proposals from the developers. We’ve uploaded the Gillon & Co draft plan as well as the Council nominated version below. Please compare carefully!

No information is forthcoming as to potential number of residential developments, the number(s) and area of retail, etc. More to follow in the days ahead on this item.

PS: Council claims that the above draft is in response to community feedback thus far. At the May forum we reported that residents stated the following:

  • Problem with language – people did not know what ‘innovation’ referred to – far too vague.
  • More clarity required about the term ‘affordable housing’ and this should be changed to ‘diversity of housing’
  • Questions about what ‘village’ means and is this a ‘village’
  • Traffic and car parking are major problems
  • Desire for low rise townhouses. Some tables nominated a maximum height limit of 3 storeys and others up to 6 storeys.
  • Diverse views on the need for another school and whether this should be part of McKinnon High or another new school entirely.
  • Open space that wasn’t covered over in concrete
  • A new supermarket required but also not a threat to other existing businesses in the area.
  • No waiving of car parking spots
  • Environmental sustainability across the entire centre including flood mitigation

Council has now decided to amend the ‘vision’ statement. It remains full of gobbledy gook, and DOES NOT address the responses listed above. Below is the original ‘vision’ and then the latest updated version.

East Village will be a thriving, mixed use precinct with a focus on employment, innovation, education and housing affordability. (Version 1)

‘East Village will be a sustainable mixed use precinct with a focus on innovative employment and education opportunities. Enhanced by green spaces and places for people, it will be supported by a diverse range of high quality housing and retail that caters for all.’  (Version 2)

 

June 29, 2017

Exploiting The Loopholes – Vickery Street?

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Planning, GE Service Performance
[5] Comments 

When a development application comes in, there are several processes that are legally required to be followed. The application can be rejected or approved under delegated authority or booted up to a full council decision which may also reject, amend, or grant the permit. The developer and/or objectors then have the option of going to VCAT.

At VCAT, there are another series of processes. There can be what is known as a Practice Day Hearing, which is basically to iron out some detail. There is a full hearing where VCAT publishes the decision and objectors are given notice. And there is what is called a compulsory hearing. This is where the problems lie since:

  • Such hearings are ‘confidential’ and no public record is available
  • Objectors are ‘ordered’ to appear if they have been part of the initial objection and wish to remain so
  • Written objections are ignored
  • The VCAT member is at liberty to issue ‘orders’ after hearing from both sides (and objectors)

In recent times it would appear that Council has managed to use this ‘loophole’ of ‘secrecy’ to avoid a full public hearing and therefore an open and easily accessible record of the outcome. More disconcerting, is that if no objector is party to these compulsory conferences, then any deals made between council and the developer is entirely up to them. History would suggest that council’s performance at these ‘compulsory conferences’ is nothing short of total cave-ins to developers – regardless as to whether or not there have been amended plans submitted.

We find it extraordinary that in the past 3 weeks (from 7/6/2017 to the schedule for the 29/6/2017) Council appears in 16 VCAT sessions. The breakdown of these 16 appearances is:

  • 7 Compulsory Conferences
  • 7 Practice Day Hearings, and only
  • 2 public hearings

A recent example should suffice in illustrating why heading off to a compulsory conference is far from satisfactory to residents. The case we use to illustrate is 24-26 Vickery St, Bentleigh. An application for a 4 storey, 36 apartment development came up for council decision on the 28th June 2016 after being submitted in May 2016. The officer recommendation was for a 4 storey and 33 apartments. There were 10 objections. Councillors, as is their want, decided that instead of a permit for 4 storeys they would reduce this to 3 storeys and 27 units. Remember, we have stated time and again that every single time such a decision has been made, the developer simply goes to VCAT and gets what he wants.

This application of course also ended up at VCAT – BUT first as a listed ‘compulsory conference’. No hearing followed. Unfortunately the objector was not able to attend. This meant that it was council and the developer who appeared. The outcome was that the VCAT member issued an order for a 4 storey development and the original number of dwellings applied for. Adding further insult to injury, was that some of the conditions stipulated by councillors in their decision were now also gone.

Thus a full open hearing was avoided. Since these compulsory conferences are ‘secret’, then no one really knows why the council representative decided to go against a full council resolution and cave-in to the developer.

What is concerning about this tactic is the following:

  • Countless applications are now being decided in compulsory conferences in favour of the developer
  • Many of these applications that end up at compulsory conferences have been first decided under Manager delegation. That means no advertising and no-one really gets to know that an application has even come into council. (The Caulfield Village Precinct 2 was a perfect example – rejected outright under ‘Manager’ delegation , a compulsory conference called, and made public only after it was highlighted via a public question that this had occurred. This did ultimately go to a full hearing where the MRC won hands down).
  • No reasons are published as to why the developer got his permit – hence transparency and accountability are non-existent
  • More concerning is that cases listed for hearings do not even proceed to this stage but are determined between council and the developer. Most end up with their permits which would indicate that council has agreed in the vast majority of cases.

A few other points are worth making –

  • When a resident wanted to check on the final permit granted for Vickery Street – to really see whether it was back to 4 storeys, since the member’s order was unclear – they were told by officers that they would have to pay a hefty $70 fee to retrieve the documents from the archives.
  • Once the resident cited the legislation to council, they did eventually agree to ‘waive’ the ‘fee’ ‘in this instance’. The Planning & Environment Act, 1987, Section 70 grants anybody the right to inspect any permit granted by council for free!!!!!
  • Council’s regular VCAT Watch, features the cases set down for VCAT. Many involve compulsory conferences that do not proceed to full hearings, yet permits are granted. Even those listed for ordinary hearings don’t always end up at the hearings. And again we find that permits have been granted. Residents should be privy to the reasons for every single decision. That is what transparency and accountability demands. When council does cave in (and we do not deny that in some instances a developer may have caved in to council’s wishes) then they must be accountable for such actions – especially when this goes against the wishes of the councillor group and a formal council resolution as in the case of Vickery Street.
  • So, we leave it to residents to decide whether council has conveniently discovered another loophole in the legislation and is using it to full advantage without ensuring full transparency and accountability to those who pay the bills – us!
 

June 27, 2017

Glen Eira & The Census

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance
[9] Comments 

The above table proves beyond doubt what an unmitigated disaster planning has been in Glen Eira and continues to be. If our suspicions of council’s intent of facilitating more and more development bears fruit then the very fabric of Glen Eira will be destroyed even further.

Here’s why:

  • Nearly a 1% increase in vacant properties
  • Instead of a projected 148,000 population in 2016, there’s only 140,000
  • Cars per household increase – and no proper parking precinct guidelines
  • Increase in family households but significant decrease in number of 3 bedroom places and even a decline in number of 2 bedroom places
  • A population increase of 10,000 but over 8000 building permits handed out in the 5 years.
  • Well above Victorian average for apartments in the municipality. Glen Eira’s buildings are composed of 24.2% for ‘semi-detached, row or terrace house, townhouse’ whilst the state average is 14.2%. In terms of ‘Flat or apartment’ Glen Eira has 24.5% and the State average is 11.6%.

Conclusions

  • There is a vast oversupply of dwellings in Glen Eira
  • Glen Eira is well and truly meeting its population growth
  • Diversity of dwellings is declining fast

Source: http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/LGA22310?opendocument

 

June 27, 2017

Beware The Hidden Agenda!

Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Open Space, GE Planning, GE Service Performance, GE Transport
[3] Comments 

The most important page that has thus far been published by council is the following because it provides a clue as to what council is really planning and why residents across Glen Eira should be very, very concerned. Our take is that council intends to facilitate and expand development across Glen Eira – especially in those areas which happen to be close to railway stations and along major roads.

The Draft Activity Centre, Housing and Local Economy Strategy makes this absolutely clear. Here is the relevant screen dump  (page 10).  Please note the following:

  • At least 3 current Local Centres will be upgraded to Neighbourhood Centres – Patterson, Ripponlea, and Garden Vale. That means more apartments!
  • Moorabbin which is a current Neighbourhood Centre will now be a Major Activity Centre as will Glen Huntly (we acknowledge that the latter has always been seen by the Government as a Major Centre. Council has insisted on calling it a Neighbourhood Centre).
  • Caulfield and Virginia Estate are givens – just the amount of residential development is unclear. We estimate another 5000 dwellings at least on these two sites.

Council has refused to deny the possibility that properties currently zoned Neighbourhood Residential will suddenly find themselves zoned as General Residential or Residential Growth. Or those zoned as General Residential will be ‘upgraded’ to Residential Growth. Without a straight out denial, that convinces us even more that the probability of this occurring is already set in concrete. The question is how many homes will be affected? How many residents will wake up one morning to find that they can now have 11 and 13.5 metre dwellings (at best) right next door to them?

As an example of what currently exists we use Patterson as a model. Here is a map of this currently designated Local Centre. Please note that it consists of a handful of shops zoned Commercial 1, but surrounded entirely by sites zoned Neighbourhood Residential. Activity centres by definition include Neighbourhood Centres and every single activity centre contains sites zoned as either Commercial, Mixed Use, General Residential or Residential Growth Zone. They do NOT contain properties zoned Neighbourhood Residential – especially not in Glen Eira.

It is definitely time that council for once provided residents with a clear and truthful version of what is in store. A simple, unequivocal ‘no’ to our suggestion that countless properties will be rezoned to GRZ or RGZ would alleviate much angst.

 

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