From today’s Caulfield Leader

We’ve been forwarded the following flyer:

The audio below also comes from last Wednesday night’s council meeting. It presents a resident’s question on the development rate in Glen Eira and how council can justify its proposed structure plans, especially the nominated heights, when this is in complete opposition to what residents have stated repeatedly they did not want.

We urge everyone to listen very, very carefully to the response that Hyams gave. He is certainly not averse to embellishment (being kind) or straight out misleading and erroneous statements. Needless to say, the resident’s question was not answered in any shape or form.

Some observations:

• Hyams’ claims that structure plans are there to present a very, very long term vision (ie 50 years) in order to cater for projected population growth. Nothing could be further from the truth! Structure plans have a time span of roughly 20 to a maximum of 30 years and certainly not 50 years as claimed. Secondly, even the State Government’s Plan Melbourne Refresh, only goes to 2050. That is a time span of 34 years. No reputable institution, and certainly no council, plans ahead for 50 years. This is a blatant untruth. Something that Hyams knows, or should know given his time on council since 2003!
• As an example of how other councils view the function of structure plans, we present below two screen dumps on CURRENT structure planning consultations by Bayside and Kingston. Please note the duration of both these plans! Hardly 50 years!!!!!!

• We also note that the resident’s question has not been answered! Nothing Hyams has stated explains why these councilors so willingly adopted heights of 12 storeys in the face of constant community opposition and outrage. Where is the justification for this? The recent VCAT judgement made it stunningly clear how sub standard planning is in Glen Eira!

VCAT has handed down its decision for the Daily Planet, Elsternwick application. This was for a 14 storey building with 21 apartments. Readers should note that council’s Structure Plan states that this area be 8 storeys but with ‘community benefit’ be allowed to reach 12 storeys. With Wynne’s interim height amendment (C157) the site was granted discretionary heights of ‘up to 12 storeys’.

What is remarkable about this decision is the fact that VCAT has spelled out in full the sheer incompetency of Glen Eira Council’s planning; their lack of action, and once again councillors who do not have the guts to do the right thing by their residents. On this last point we quote the decision:

We choose to observe that, if the Council had determined to refuse to grant a permit for the proposed development, rather than condition a reduction in height by six storeys, we would have readily supported that decision that no permit be granted.  We agree with the submissions of nearby residents, lead by Mr Jones and Ms Smith, that the proposed building results in a range of built form impacts, that will even be considerable with a reduction in height to 8 storeys.  Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a position where a permit has been granted, and we are left to determine particular contested conditions, which only influence particular elements of the overall proposal.  Having regard to the various considerations that we need to balance in our decision making task, we consider that the fairest outcome we can offer to all parties, is to support the Council’s position in relation to building height. 

At the council meeting of 19^th March 2019, Delahunty & Magee moved the motion for refusal. This was defeated and an alternate motion granting a permit of 8 storeys was carried. The movers for this second motion were Silver & Sztrajt. So much for  Camden ward councillors protecting their ward! This was carried. Thus the developer got his 8 storeys. Yes, better than 14, but certainly something that could have been avoided.

But there’s far, far more to this decision that pin points exactly what is wrong with our council and by implication asks how on earth Wynne could have rubber stamped the interim amendment when there is absolutely no strategic justification for anything!

Here are some of the quotes from the decision and we’ve uploaded the full document HERE

…. by grouping the review site with the adjacent residential neighbourhood in Precinct 3, despite its commercial zoning, the policy at Clause 22.05 undersells the development potential of the review site.  …..One reason for this conservative policy position is the age of this policy, which we understand dates from 1999, and therefore does not take account of successive redrafting of State policy which increasingly raises the bar for the extent of redevelopment expected in higher order activity centres

While Clause 22.05 forms part of the Glen Eira Planning Scheme and must contribute to our decision making process, we choose to give it limited weight, given its inconsistency with the next two documents, and its failure to be revised in a manner consistent with the progress of State policy over time.

1           Under the ESP (Elsternwick Structure Plan), the review site is identified as having a height of between 8-12 storeys.  These heights are only expressed as storeys, and not as metres. (meaning that the developer has put in a height that is equivalent to approx 50 metres!) …..

2            It is fair to say that we have some concerns with the content and guidance contained in the ESP, which we summarise as follows:

1. The ESP contains no urban design or built form analysis, and no meaningful strategic planning analysis, which explains how the recommended heights of 8-12 storeys are arrived at. The lack of any rigour or meaningful analysis in establishing these heights, lends us to give less weight to them.
2. The ESP contains a series of eleven design principles, without explaining how these design principles are intended to interact with the recommended building heights. Relevant to the review site are the following two design principles.
3. As we have already observed, the ESP is largely devoid of any urban design or strategic analysis that supports the heights set out in that structure plan, which appears to form the basis for the discretionary height limit set out in DDO10.
4. The ESP identifies the need for more analysis and assessment to be undertaken to further refine building heights, as well as the treatment of interface locations and the likely shadows to impact residential properties. It appears that none of this work has been undertaken prior to the introduction of DDO10.
5. DDO10 contains very little guidance to enable a decision maker to assess whether a building that is at or under the discretionary height limit, achieves an appropriate built form outcome for a particular site. We accept that a useful decision guideline exists for developments that seek to exceed the discretionary height limit.  Decision guidelines and requirements also apply that relate to particular elements of a built form, such as the use of materials and colours, the provision of entries, the placement and design of building services, the potential overlooking of nearby dwellings, the treatment of interfaces to heritage places, and the desired treatment of the lower levels of the building.  However, when one comes to assess the appropriateness of the overall height and scale of a building, the extent of guidance is very thin, and amounts to not much more than the following statements, some of which are only somewhat relevant to the issue of building height and scale.

Firstly, we form that view having regard to the absence of any genuine urban design or strategic analysis that supports the 43 metre discretionary height limit currently set out in DDO10. Secondly, we are also concerned that the existing DDO10 is an interim control, and that the more permanent planning controls and built form guidance for this activity centre are still being created. In the absence of a considered, tested and permanent set of built form controls for this activity centre, we are loath to approve a 14 storey 59.8 metre tall building on the review site, that will have the effect of permanently transforming in a significant manner the built form language for this activity centre

CONCLUSIONS

We have been asking for years now for council to provide strategic justification for its planning decisions. These answers have not been forthcoming. This judgement makes it absolutely clear that:

• There is NO STRATEGIC JUSTIFICATION for a 12 storey height limit
• There is no strategic justification that covers this height and the overshadowing impacts
• There is no adequate building design
• We have a planning scheme that belongs in the museum of antiquities
• We have councillors who do not have a clue and repeatedly betray their constituents

Tonight’s meeting on the Virginia Estate amendment was publicized as an ‘opportunity for councillors’ to hear resident submitters and their views. Hyams chaired the meeting together with a council planner. This is the norm for planning conferences. The only other councillor present was Magee! So we have the largest development proposal in Glen Eira’s history and only 2 councillors bother to show up. We are also expected to believe that our illustrious 9 councillors will bother going through and reading word for word the 153 stated submissions (plus 5 in support) in the next couple of weeks since a Special Council meeting has been called for Wednesday week. This amendment will be rushed off to a planning panel at this meeting no doubt. Indecent haste indeed!

The general tenor of the meeting included residents pointing out the following:

• Why the proposed school isn’t on the main road (East Boundary) given that a bus now runs along this road. Instead it is tucked away in a corner and students will be sharing the open space with residents. Representatives from the Education Department and the developer refused to answer the simple question of whether the State Government had purchased the 1.2 hectare site for the school, or whether the developer had ‘donated’ the land. Apparently a tender has already gone out for construction and the school will ultimately house 1100 students and be 5 storeys in height. On resident voiced his disapproval of the fact that he had hoped to influence where the school is sited (especially regarding safety issues) but since the tender has gone out, then the evening was really a waste of time if nothing would change.
• Traffic, lack of open space, heights, and general vagueness of the plans featured again and again. Many residents pointed out that a school of this size would require about 150 teachers who could all be driving, parents dropping off kids, etc. Asked about ‘drop offs’ and general traffic generation, parking, etc. the Education Department rep was unable to provide any answer. That was still being worked on! Yet council is voting on the 23rd!!!!
• Retail was also questioned in terms of: size of proposed supermarkets, timing of the development and whether all the ‘analyses’ was really up to date given the planned Kaufland supermarket less than a couple of km away.
• The lack of third party objection rights was mentioned by several speakers. The response from Aiden Mullen was that council had already gone through various comprehensive consultation processes, so this amendment was basically to provide ‘certainty’ for the developer and residents!!!!!!

We congratulate residents on the pretty good turnout, and most importantly, for their willingness to plough through hundreds of pages of inconclusive and nonbinding waffle, and make sense of it in the end. It’s just a pity that we have a council that does not fight tooth and nail for its residents.

Angry residents to rally against planned 14-storey Woolies development

By Rachael Houlihan

October 4, 2019 — 3.49pm

Angry residents say a proposal by supermarket giant Woolworths to turn ABC’s old Elsternwick studios into a development of twin towers, one 14 storeys high, will ruin the suburb’s “village feel”.

Protesters will pound the footpath on Saturday morning, rallying against Woolworths’ plan to build the 14- and 10-storey apartment complex, which will also include a supermarket, liquor store and retail spaces, on the corner of Selwyn and Sinclair streets.

Stop the Elsternwick Towers member and rally organiser Karen Boyd-Jones, who lives on nearby St Georges Road, said residents feared it would over-shadow streets and invade residents’ privacy. This is the second rally the group has organised.

She said the development would lead to thousands of extra cars a day “going down our leafy residential streets”. “We just think the amenity of the area will deteriorate significantly.” She said the suburb was a “pretty, heritage area” and the proposed development was adjacent to Victorian and Edwardian houses.

The site was the former home of an ABC studio but is not to be confused with the nearby Gordon Street “dream factory” where Countdown and SeaChange were filmed.

Sinclair Street resident Kathy Deacon said the proposed towers would “destroy the area with its related problems such as traffic, parking, noise, pollution, over-shadowing and loss of privacy”. “This is an inappropriate development with no regard for local residents or communities,” she said.

Glen Eira councillors voted against granting a planning permit for the development in February, after receiving more than 180 objections. Mayor Jamie Hyams said the height, form, scale and design of the proposed development was “excessive” and would “appear overly dominant” from surrounding streets.

Woolworths confirmed that, if the proposal was approved, it would sell a 1000 square metre allotment at a reduced rate to the Jewish Cultural and Arts Precinct to relocate the Jewish Museum, currently in St Kilda, to the Selwyn Street precinct.

“We have been engaging with key community stakeholders as part of the VCAT process and have made changes to our plans as a result of these discussions,” Woolworths head of property development Andrew Loveday said.

The Jewish Holocaust Centre is opposite the proposed towers and museum director Jayne Josem wants the area to become a “vibrant cultural hub”.

“I can understand why [objectors] have concerns but I think they have to be realistic about the growth and development of the neighbourhood,” she said. “Selwyn Street isn’t residential. The community is growing and with that comes towers.”

Source: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/angry-residents-to-rally-against-planned-14-storey-woolies-development-20191004-p52xq1.html