The Centre Road Bentleigh Group, who are opposing high rise development in Centre Road, have prepared the below posting on the recent (6/3/17) Planning Conference for the proposed 72 unit development at 277-9 Centre Road.
GERA supports the group and encourages residents to do the same – the group may be contacted via email at centreroadbentleigh@gmail.com
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – STOP THE DESTRUCTION
A call for all of the Glen Eira community to attend the Council meeting on Tuesday 21st March at Glen Eira Town Hall.
At the next Council meeting, Tuesday 21st March at 7.30pm, Councillors will consider the rezoning of a large site at 100 McKinnon Road McKinnon, a nine storey development application at 277 Centre Road Bentleigh (summary below), an eight storey development application at 348 Centre Road Bentleigh.
With a 15 storey development application also recently submitted for Koornang Road Carnegie incorporating a reduction of 56 statutory car parks, Enough is Enough. The whole community should attend this meeting to demonstrate that the destruction of Glen Eira is not acceptable. We are all being affected by inappropriate unplanned development and it’s not good enough. Enough is Enough.
Nine Storey Development Planning Conference Summary
A Planning Conference for the nine-storey (72 apartment) development application at 277 Centre Road Bentleigh was held on Monday 6th March. In excess of 200 objections were received for the development and the planning conference was well attended particularly given that many objectors only received advice on the day. Numerous attendees highlighted that they lived very close to this potential huge development and they, and others, did not receive any formal notification from Council about the development application. Please City of Glen Eira get this process right and allow for genuine consultation!
It was good to see a new Councillor take the chair, hopefully this conference provided first hand insight on resident disenchantment and anger over excessive, inappropriate and unplanned development in Glen Eira generally and Centre Road Bentleigh specifically. Of great concern at the meeting was the performance of the Council officer who did not know the actual location of the development, its height, its zoning under the interim controls and many other elements. This situation is unacceptable and needs to be addressed if the leadership of Glen Eira want the planning process to have any credibility in the future.
As per previous planning conferences for developments in commercial areas, residents again highlighted the following points:
- Height and scale of building is excessive for Bentleigh.
- Development in Bentleigh is increasing too rapidly.
- Loss of neighbourhood character.
- Poor transition in height and setbacks to residential area.
- Visual bulk and dominance of building within streetscape.
- Development will detract from nearby heritage dwellings.
- Inadequate parking provided on site.
- Traffic congestion – street parking is already inadequate.
- Poor internal amenity and design is not sustainable.
- Strain on infrastructure.
- Inadequate open space to accommodate additional population.
In the absence of reasonable controls (such as a structure plan – which is due to be completed in October 2017 and interim height limits – evidently due very soon!), much discussion was focused on the provision of on site car parking and general traffic management. The applicant has sought a waiver in the reduction of statutory car parks by a number of 26 and they included a very outdated 2015 car parking survey as part of the submission. Historically, Council has allowed a reduction in the number of statutory car parks and when asked about the reason for this, the Council officer could not provide any justification. The applicant’s traffic management consultant provided no confidence either with residents left absolutely bemused as to why more rigor has not been done in this area.
As the representatives of residents, Council was requested to seriously and rigorously assess the implication of cumulative car parking and traffic and in the absence of any justification, to not provide a waiver of statutory car parking numbers. Several residents (doing Council research) pointed out that since the car parking survey was completed in 2015, the following developments have been approved (one at VCAT) with waivers on statutory car parking provision.
- 324 Centre Road 8 storeys 39 dwellings reduced parking.
- 343 Centre Road 4 storeys reduced parking.
- 270 Centre Road 4 storeys reduced parking.
- 348 – 352 Centre Road 8 storeys 38 dwellings reduced parking (at VCAT).
- 339 Centre Road 3 storeys reduced parking.
- 342 – 346 Centre Road 19 dwellings reduced parking.
- 331 Centre Road reduced parking.
- 261 Centre Road 18 dwellings reduced parking.
- 24 Mavho Street 4 storeys 28 dwellings reduced parking.
- 40 Mavho Street 4 storeys 24 dwellings reduced parking.
- 39 Mavho Street 3 storeys 27 dwellings reduced parking.
- 32 Mavho Street 3 storeys 10 dwellings reduced parking.
- 37 Nicholson Street 26 dwellings reduced parking.
The traffic management considerations for the site are very unique as the access/exit location is via a residential street (Oak Street), close to Centre Road and is opposite from the residential entrance to apartments above Aldi, the Aldi loading bay and the Aldi car park entrance. The most astonishing element however is that the applicant proposes that the entry/exit point to the 72 apartment development will be via a rear laneway which is one car width wide. You don’t need to be a traffic engineer to work out that this is not an acceptable solution in this century! If Council is serving its community it will fully review this and challenge the suitability of this proposal.
Enough is Enough – Stop this Destruction.
Attend the Council meeting on Tuesday 21st March at 7.30pm to show Councillors that the current planning situation is not acceptable.
Glen Eira Residents' Association Inc 