A citizen's Red Alert on the three new State residential zones in Victoria has been issued at www.mrra.asn.au. The situation is critical. If these zones go ahead as is, you stand to lose your rights to know what happens where you live, potentially leaving you absolutely powerless, legally prohibited from being able to do anything about, or even being notified of, a development or subdivision proposal in your area. In other words, residents are being shut out of planning.
We are losing all our democracy and all our rights.
Victorians need to put in a submission even if it’s just a single sentence saying that these zones and their removal of residents’ rights to know about, to object to and to appeal at VCAT against development and subdivision proposals in residential zones ISN’T ON. And it really is a matter of speak now, or forever hold your peace. If someone thinks proposals comply with ResCode, you can kiss your rights goodbye – you won’t have any.
The government is now trying to hose down growing community concerns, saying these zones don’t extinguish rights, but even the government’s own residential zones’ Discussion Paper says they will.
More than that, all three zones promote “fast-tracking” of development approvals, and two promote multi-storey development, with one not allowing anything under 4 storeys (and no maximum height limit), and another – the one most likely to be broadly applied in Macedon Ranges ( a significant country area, famous for Hanging Rock) – not allowing a maximum height of less than 3 storeys.
What do you think these zones will do to the character of our rural towns, of your street? Even if you don’t live in a residential zone, there are some pretty big principles involved here, so check it out and put your views in by April 18. PS Ask your friends to do the same.
NEW RED ALERT New Residential Zones Rub Out Residents' Rights - Get Submissions In by Friday 18 April
(7/4/08 - P) MRRA RED ALERT TO RESIDENTS: You might not get another chance so take this opportunity to say "NO" to losing your rights to be notified of, object to and appeal against planning applications. And don't muck around or put it off - a new executive director position for "Planning Services and Development Facilitation" is already being set up in the Department of Planning, so get your submission in - quick!
(For more on how the property developers and the media now run our government, read the last half of "Why the Brisbane elections shouldn't have been boring". It's the same now in every state. Also, have a look at the Australian Property Council website documents in your state. pcalive.netattention.com.au/nat/ Very instructive about what we probably can expect - no mercy.)
Comments
Suzy
Sun, 2008-04-13 10:52
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'Public consultation' questions difficult to answer
Sheila Newman
Mon, 2008-04-14 21:22
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Difficult questions and marketing undemocratic engineered growth
Suzy
Fri, 2008-04-18 10:33
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I made a submission through the online form
I made a submission through the online form, though I could not answer most of the questions (see my previous comment)! I ended with a rather lame comment:
Sheila Newman
Fri, 2008-04-18 11:22
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Please keep those comments on Victoria's developer putsch coming