The major item on the agenda for Council’s last meeting of 2011 was the proposed redevelopment of the 3-hectare Channel 9 site in Bendigo St Richmond. This was first discussed four years ago, and follows two years of fairly intensive work, drafting and revising documents, seeking community feedback and then the advice of an expert Panel.
While the ALP and independent Councillors remained largely silent, and the Socialists engaged in their usual agitprop, we were left once again with the task of reading the proposals properly, listening to the community, thinking through scenarios and formulating a proposal focussed squarely on good outcomes – for the present and future community.
The local community’s key concerns about the proposed development were its height, removal of all site trees, parking and traffic. We were also concerned that the Amendment proposed only 5% of apartments to be affordable and wheelchair accessible, not 5% of total dwellings as previously agreed.
The Socialists proposed stamping our feet, throwing years of painstaking work out and starting again. This would have given the developers the perfect excuse to go to the Planning Minister arguing Council was being obstructionist and vexatious, and asking him to take over planning control of the site.
Minister Guy has suggested 20 storeys for Richmond Station, and approved a 25-storey building on a site in Maribyrnong where the Council policy was 12 storeys. All other Councillors recognised the Socialists’ proposal as irresponsible, populist nonsense, and rejected it. Crs Main and Jolly clearly want to tell people what they want to hear, even if it’s patently untrue. We are not prepared to go along with this simplistic approach, or prioritise “popularity” ahead of the best possible outcomes for the community.
The ALP and independent Councillors, including Melba Ward Councillors Funder and Smedley, asked no questions and proposed nothing.
We proposed reducing the height of the development to a maximum of six storeys, further work seeking the retention of the 36 mature, healthy trees identified by the East Richmond Residents’ Association, closure of the Moore St access point (as requested by Moore St residents), and clarification that 5% of dwellings (not apartments) should be affordable and wheelchair accessible. Traffic and parking will be addressed by a Council traffic management plan for the whole local area. This proposal sought to address the majority of residents’ key concerns, and attracted majority support.
The Channel 9 site game is by no means over. The developers may still go to the Minister, or seek further changes when they apply for permits. Permit applications are only required to be “generally in accordance” with the development plan, and we know from bitter experience that this can have quite broad legal interpretation.
Our ALP and independent colleagues in 2009 voted to use a planning mechanism for this site that will prevent residents from taking future permit applications to VCAT. We sought at the time to use a different mechanism that would have preserved these rights, but were outvoted then because Council had an extra ALP Councillor. Council is still the decision-maker about permits, but if there are problems with permit proposals, it will be up to Council alone to deal with them.
We Greens will continue to scrutinise every development proposal, listen to and communicate honestly with the community, and seek to devise workable, solutions, focused on future liveability and sustainability, as we have for the last three years. If last night’s meeting was anything to go on, the other Councillors will continue to mostly leave this work to us, and the Socialists will ramp up their electoral posturing. This wasted so much time at this month’s meeting that eight of the agenda items were not even discussed.
