PLANNING DEMOCRACY CONVENOR’S REPORT No. 8 – 17 MARCH 2022

Headlines: Planning Democracy Heritage Protection Forum; Legislative Council Planning and Heritage Committee Inquiry; Windsor Heritage House demolished; Big Win Number 1 - Liddiard Street Carpark gone; Big Win Number 2 - Tullamarine waste dump; Save Westernport woodlands; Kilmore Land update; Kew Cottages Coalition; Wattle Park update; Planning delegations in Moreland and Yarra - a win and a loss; 38 Harrison Street Brunswick; National Trust; Sunbury update; Suburban Rail Loop boondoggle; Kunyung Road Mount Eliza Former Reservoir; Federal Election 2022; St Elmo Avenue Ferntree Gully; Boroondara bicycle strategy; Australian Heritage advocacy alliance; Queen Victoria market; and another thing - We are not alone!

 

1. PLANNING DEMOCRACY HERITAGE PROTECTION FORUM

WHEN? SATURDAY 9 APRIL, 10AM sharp till 12 NOON.

WHERE? HAWTHORN LIBRARY, 584 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, Meeting Room 3.

FORMAT – Prof Michael Buxton and Clifford Hayes MP will each speak for 10 minutes to provide background and context on the state of heritage protection in Victoria. Felicity Watson (National Trust) and Jackie Watts (Australian Heritage Advocacy Alliance) will speak for 5 minutes on the role of their organisations. There will then be an opportunity for attendees to talk briefly about either your organisation, or about the changes you want to see to better protect our heritage. This should allow some time for general discussion, and the development of a shared path forward in 2022.

COVID-SAFE – I have completed Boroondara Libraries requirement for a Covid-Safe Plan. This includes a requirement for attendees to be double vaccinated, and to bring evidence of this, which will be checked.

RSVP – Please email me back to let me know you are attending. If you are bringing others, let me know this as well. The venue has a capacity of 80; I need to know in advance if we have a space problem. If we do, it will be first in, best dressed.

I look forward to seeing you there. Since taking on this role, I have encountered a widespread sense that in Victoria we have dropped the ball on heritage protection, and that it is time to fight back!

2. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL PLANNING AND HERITAGE COMMITTEE INQUIRY

One of many reasons why the Heritage Protection Forum is important is the news that the Legislative Council Planning and Environment Committee has abandoned the idea of Public Hearings as part of its inquiry into planning and heritage protections. This will deprive resident groups of the opportunity to appear before the Committee and speak directly to MPs. It is a slap in the face for those who have gone to the trouble of making detailed submissions. As I have reported previously, the ones I have seen are excellent. It is cold comfort to say that the matter is being referred to the next Parliament for more detailed attention. The next Parliament is master of its own destiny, and may or may not wish to follow up this issue, depending on who is in it.

I advised the Committee Secretariat of the dismay of resident groups at this development, and I know that other groups have done this as well.

I understand that 2 members of the Committee, Clifford Hayes (Sustainable Australia Party) and Samantha Ratnam (Greens Party), voted against the proposal to abandon Public Hearings. The other Committee members either voted in favour of the motion to abandon Public Hearings, or were not present at the meeting. I am attaching a Herald Sun report of this issue.

One positive feature of the Inquiry is that it has led to many groups producing strong submissions. This has certainly helped concentrate my mind on what changes we need to campaign for, and will no doubt help others when the submissions are all made public, as I have been informed they will be.

3. WINDSOR HERITAGE HOUSE DEMOLISHED

Another reason we need a Heritage Protection Forum is that the relentless demolition of heritage homes continues. An A1 heritage graded timber cottage at 5 George St Windsor was demolished in February.

It was constructed around 1855, one of a very early settlement of houses in the south west corner of Prahran, and one of the oldest and rarest in the Stonnington municipality. The Stonnington Council has described the loss of the building as extremely disappointing, says it takes non-compliance with planning permits very seriously, and has commenced proceedings at VCAT to stop further works on the land.

As I said to Herald Sun property reporter Alesha Capone, “It is clear that the existing penalties are not strong enough to stop heritage buildings being demolished. The penalties need to be stronger, not just a cost of doing business. Not allowing development permits on land where heritage buildings have been illegally demolished would be a genuine deterrent”.

4. BIG WIN NUMBER 1 – LIDDIARD STREET CARPARK GONE

I have previously reported on the campaign by Nance Frawley and Hawthorn residents to stop a multi-storey carparking development at Glenferrie Station catering for around 490 spaces, over 350 more than exist at present.

Residents were concerned that the proposal represented an overdevelopment of the site, that it would attract traffic to the surrounding streets, and increase, rather than reduce, traffic congestion. The cost of the proposal was being underwritten by a $15 million grant from the Australian Government as part of the Urban Congestion Fund, and looked like a serious waste of taxpayers’ money.

A fortnight ago the Federal Government announced that funding for this proposed carpark, as well as other carpark upgrades proposed for Canterbury, Camberwell, and Surry Hills, would not go ahead. Treasurer Frydenberg said he had received feedback from local residents and traders about the proposals. Local residents groups are delighted with this outcome. I have attached a report by John Masanauskas of the Herald Sun, which includes my comment that this “was a great win for people power”.

5. BIG WIN NUMBER 2 – TULLAMARINE WASTE DUMP

Hume City Council has decided not to support Amendment C250, to rezone and develop land at Wright St and Western Avenue Westmeadows. This is another big win, for local residents and for the Friends of Moonee Ponds Creek.

The land in question is adjacent to the Tullamarine Waste Dump, which has been the location for the dumping of seriously toxic chemicals. At the same time as the proposal for a residential rezoning was being considered, an Audit Report of the Waste Dump was being carried out, which described the land next door as “buffer zone”. The implication was that the risk of contamination was less serious because no-one was living there. The Audit Report was being done by a company that also was doing work for the property developer who owns the land next door.

This proposal had more red lights than a Christmas tree. It sounded like the script for a sequel to Erin Brokovich. Fortunately, the Council has voted it down. Congratulations to Kaye Oddie, Helen van den Berg, the Friends of Moonee Ponds Creek and local residents for their work on this. The land should remain as “buffer land”, which can best be assured by its being transferred into public ownership. It would make sense to me for the landfill owners to pay for this.

6. SAVE WESTERN PORT WOODLANDS

Have you ever wondered where the millions of cubic tonnes of concrete for Melbourne’s huge projects come from? Well, much of the sand comes from underneath a string of reserves and remnant woodland across the eastern side of Western Port, from Lang Lang, to Grantville, including the former Holden Proving Ground.

Sand extraction totally destroys the remnant vegetation which provides habitat for threatened species including Southern Brown Bandicoots, Powerful Owls, and several Ecological Vegetation Classes. Save Western Port Woodlands is asking the State Government to amend Victoria’s designated sand extraction area to protect the last significant coastal forest in the region.

For more information: http://www.savewesternportwoodlands.org/

Thanks to Anne Heath Mennell of Save Western Port Woodlands for this information.

7. KILMORE LAND UPDATE

The Panel Hearing on Amendment C154 commenced on 1 March. The Panel has asked Mitchell Shire for further information by March 22, and described Council’s substantive position as “now effectively neutral”. Mitchell Shire is scheduled to discuss the matter on Monday 21 March, but will not make a formal decision on the Amendment until it receives the Panel’s report and recommendations.

Clifford Hayes office has provided information about the legislation which governs the sale of land by Councils. The Local Government Act 1989 and its guidelines require that

• A Council must give at least 4 weeks public notice of an intention to sell or exchange land

• The valuation of the land must not be made more than 6 months prior to the sale of the land, and must be valued by someone specified under the Valuation of Land Act 1960, and

• A Council must undertake a community engagement process in line with its community engagement policy.

I am now seeking information on the legal situation that applied in 1984, when the then Kilmore Council transferred the land to trustees for $1.

8. KEW COTTAGES COALITION

On 15 March I was a Guest Speaker at the Kew Cottages Coalition, together with Clifford Hayes MP and Boroondara Councillor Nick Stavrou. I was able to talk about the work of Planning Democracy. Like other groups, Kew Cottages Coalition is concerned about the abandonment of public hearings by the Legislative Council Planning and Environment Committee. Brian Walsh and the other Coalition members continue to campaign strongly for better heritage protection.

9. WATTLE PARK UPDATE

The campaign to save Wattle Park from overdevelopment by Parks Victoria continues. I am attaching relevant material provided to me by Bea Mc Nicholas. She has also advised that the 105th Anniversary of Wattle Park will be celebrated on Thursday 31 March, with two free guided walk and talks with local historians.

The Melbourne Tramways Band has a great tradition of free public recitals at Wattle Park, which dates back to 1940. This will continue at the Park, weather permitting, at 2.30pm on Sunday 27 March and Sunday 24 April.

10. PLANNING DELEGATIONS IN MORELAND AND YARRA – A WIN AND A LOSS

Delegating planning decisions from Councillors to Council officers is undemocratic and bad. Often there is an inference behind planning delegations that residents don’t know what’s best for them, and can’t be trusted to make good decisions, that Planning Officers know best. The inference is arrogant and should be resisted. When I was a Councillor, we decided pretty much everything and delegated very little. Our ratepayers, for the most part, liked us, and Councillors had long careers.

I know that the sheer volume of planning applications now makes that impractical. Nevertheless, far too much gets delegated. Property developers, who prefer to deal with Council officers rather than elected Councillors, keep pushing for more delegation.

In Moreland officers had proposed a “Design Excellence Scoreboard”, which would have exempted “compliant” applications from being reported to Council’s Planning and Related Matters Meeting, or to a Council meeting.

Fortunately, community members, including the Brunswick Residents Network, told the Council very clearly that they wanted to retain “robust democratic oversight of the planning process by the community and Councillors”. While the Scorecard lives on, the proposed changes to the officer delegation guidelines have been removed. Long may it stay that way.

The outcome in Yarra was not so good. Yarra Council has approved a new delegation instrument. It will require 15 objections to get a matter to Council’s Planning Decisions Committee, whereas presently it requires 5. Furthermore, it delegates to officers anything that involves building extensions of up to 3 dwellings, including heritage overlay issues, as well as works in a commercial zone of up to $1 million, and works in an industrial zone of up to $2 million. This will undermine both residents’ rights and heritage protections.

Yarra Council has also been taken to task over a Code of Conduct for Councillors to speak publicly about issues. Again, this is not something one expects to see in a democracy. Councillors are elected by voters, who expect them to speak on their behalf. They should be free to say whatever they like about Council decisions and issues, and be accountable to the voters, and the voters alone, for their conduct.

11. 38 HARRISON STREET BRUNSWICK

I submitted an objection on behalf of Planning Democracy to an application for 38 Harrison Street Brunswick (MPS/2020/799). The plans involve the partial demolition and external alteration to the existing dwelling, construction of 7 triple storey dwellings, reduction to the car parking requirement and removal of vegetation.

My objection focussed on the heritage significance of the 1880s cottage, and plans to remove established canopy trees. I also supported the concerns of the Friends of Merri Creek, (1) that the application is inconsistent with Environment Significance Overlay 1 and has a poor interface with the Merri Creek parklands and trail, (2) flooding risk, (3) the open space contribution, and (4) planting issues.

Moreland Council’s Open Space Strategy says that where opportunities arise, Council should acquire land to create a vegetated buffer along the Merri Creek. This is one such opportunity. Council should reject the application and enter into negotiations with the applicant which would enable the retention of tree canopy cover, of heritage significance buildings, and an increase in the Merri Creek open space, which is a major and increasingly important natural public asset.

Thanks to Franco Paoletti for drawing this issue to my attention, and to the Friends of Merri Creek, the Brunswick Community History Group, and local residents for their strong submissions.

12. NATIONAL TRUST

Kristin Stegley OAM has stepped down as Chair of the National Trust after leading the organisation for the past 6 years. We thank her for her commitment to heritage protection as Chair, and note that she is continuing to serve as a Board Director.

Andrew Logie-Smith, who has been the Trust’s Company Secretary in recent years, is the new Chair. We wish him well in this important role.

13. SUNBURY UPDATE

I have previously reported on local opposition to a proposed 6 storey development in O’Shanassy Street Sunbury. Peter Gavin reports the application has received 234 objections. Due to the very high number of objections, Council is setting aside a night to hear the objectors.

14. SUBURBAN RAIL LOOP BOONDOGGLE

When I was in the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party and Kim Beazley was Leader, he regularly used his address to Caucus to use a word that we had never heard before, and send us off to check our dictionaries. One was “boondoggle” – basically, an un-necessary infrastructure project, a white elephant. Recently Macrobusiness has used this word to describe the Suburban Rail Loop.

They note that respected journalist Tim Colebatch has described the Loop as “the worst transport project Melbourne has ever seen”. He said that tunnels eat money, and that the Government had not produced a proper business case or cost-benefit analysis for it. He said the project would suck up resources needed for more urgent projects.

Now the Grattan Institute (Marion Terrill) has called for the Project to be scrapped, noting that it is based on outdated pre-pandemic projections. She said the project came about in a secretive way, and the government had offered scant information about it, “beyond the glossy pictures”.

The Defenders of the South East Green Wedge Inc. are campaigning against the use of the Delta site in Heatherton’s South East Green Wedge for the above-ground train stabling yards. This will result in the loss of public open space long planned for the Chain of Parks and a regional sporting facility. They are supported by the Green Wedges Coalition, the Move the Train Yard group, Heatherton Residents against Inappropriate Development, and Kingston Council.

In defending the project, Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said that by 2056 Melbourne would have a population of 9 million, the size of London today. To which my response is this - Melbourne growing to become 9 million people, the size of London, in thirty-something years, will have a greater impact on the lives of its residents than anything else Governments are doing, or could ever think of doing. We are asked to comment on all sorts of little things, but never asked what we think of this plan. Major political parties never say to the voters that this is their plan. They should seek an honest democratic mandate for it.

15. KUNYUNG ROAD MOUNT ELIZA FORMER RESERVOIR

The South-Eastern Centre for Sustainability is continuing its campaign to save the former water reservoir in Mount Eliza as public open space. Six years ago, the reservoir was decommissioned by South East Water and referred to the State Government as “surplus land”.

The community opposed proposals to sell the land for housing, and the plans were dropped. However, the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance is now considering use and sale options for the land. South-Eastern Centre for Sustainability President Steve Karakitsos says local residents are ready to fight again to ensure the land is preserved for is environmental importance and community value.

Mount Eliza resident Mary Ellen Smith says the “spectacular natural environment” of 57 Kunyung Road could be lost forever if development was allowed. The land is subject to a vegetation protection overlay, which recognises it as an important area of habitat corridors.

It would make sense for it to become part of larger National Park, together with 60-70 Kunyung Road, which is owned by Ryman Healthcare. Their proposal to build a large aged care centre on this site was rejected last year by VCAT.

16. FEDERAL ELECTION 2022

While most of the issues of concern to Planning Democracy are a Victorian state responsibility, there are some issues where Federal policies can help or harm our cause. I mentioned some of them in Convenor’s Report No. 7. They included Australia’s failure to sign up to Tranche 2 global anti-money laundering rules. These rules apply to real estate agents, accountants, and lawyers, who have successfully lobbied Federal Governments for the past 16 years to steer clear of reporting obligations.

This is now causing renewed embarrassment for Australia, because our lack of such Rules makes Australia a place of interest for Russian oligarchs, who are now looking for somewhere to park their money beyond the reach of sanctions. Very few countries have not signed up; it is worth asking candidates to commit to signing Australia up, like everybody else, to the Financial Action Taskforce rules.

The other issue was raised by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria in their excellent submission to the Legislative Council Planning and Environment Committee inquiry into planning and heritage protections. They note that some years ago the Commonwealth introduced a “Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa (subclass 188). Someone investing $2.5 million (Investor stream) or $5 million (significant investor stream) can get residence in Australia. Money spent to build a house is counted, provided you build a new building. This creates “a huge incentive to demolition”. As the Society says, there is no reason to include housing as an “investment”, and the Federal Government should remove housing from visa qualification.

Indeed, why do we have this visa category at all? It is no part of Australia’s humanitarian obligations to less fortunate countries to try to lure their most successful and wealthiest people here.

17. ST ELMO AVENUE FERNTREE GULLY

Bronwyn Stephen reports that an application for a proposed 12-metre-high aged care facility at 2-8 St Elmo Avenue Ferntree Gully is set to go to VCAT on 11 April. Residents believe this project is out of character with its Dandenong foothills setting, is bulky and visually intrusive, will destroy privacy and amenity for neighbouring properties, and will add to traffic and parking issues.

State Government legislation in late 2018 has made it easier for multi-storey aged care facilities to be built in residential areas and over-ride local planning guidelines. Planning officers had recommended in favour of the application, but to their credit Councillors unanimously rejected it.

18. BOROONDARA BICYCLE STRATEGY

Ian Hundley has drawn to my attention Boroondara Council’s review of its Bicycle Strategy. It includes a proposal for a cycleway through Greythorn Park, Jacka Reserve, Gordon Barnard Reserve, Hislop Park, Macleay/Myrtle Park, Stradbroke Park and Hays Paddock. A cycleway is typically 3 metres in width and paved with asphalt or concrete.

Ian points out that the canopy trees in these parks are of inestimable value, and the parks are highly valued by local residents for relaxation and passive recreation. He believes that facilities for cycling are important, but these parks are the wrong location for transport infrastructure. He urges people who are concerned about the cycleway proposal to make their views known to Boroondara Council.

19. AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE ADVOCACY ALLIANCE

The Australian Heritage Advocacy Alliance (AHAA) website is now live – see https://ahaa.net.au

As I have previously advised, the Alliance plans to proactively raise awareness in Federal election candidates about the value of heritage, and the need for effective government protection.

20. QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET

CBD News reports that 2 long-standing Queen Victoria Market traders have been left devastated after being told to shut up shop to make way for a new look food hall. Mary-Lou Howie, of Friends of Queen Victoria Market, said it had been a traumatic time for food court traders. She said an obscene amount of money had been wasted in the expressions of interest process, and traders had already invested considerable resources coming out of COVID. She said there had been a serious lack of communication between management and stallholders about restoration work in F Shed, with traders having “absolutely no security of tenure and (who) cannot plan for the future of their businesses”.

21. AND ANOTHER THING – WE ARE NOT ALONE!

I am indebted to Planning Democracy supporters for this discovery. One asked me whether there were any kindred or like-minded groups in Tasmania. So I went online and in no time at all came across the Planning Matters Alliance Tasmania, which defends the rights of Tasmanians to have a say in planning matters.

And another supporter said to me, “do you know there is a Planning Democracy in Great Britain?” And sure enough, in Scotland there is a Planning Democracy, fighting almost exactly the same battles we are.

As a third person who drew my attention to a campaign by the London Gardens Trust said, “not sure whether it is depressing or encouraging that we are not alone”. Indeed. I am very happy to find that others feel the same way about things as we do, and are fighting the good fight. But sad that the growth and development juggernaut seems to be wreaking havoc everywhere. Still, we can win, as the examples above from Hawthorn, Tullamarine, and Moreland, demonstrate.