August 2011 Planning Submission

In july 2011 Matthew Guy, Minister for Planning, invited the public to make a submission about improving Planning Provisions, Schemes and the Planning System generally.  This is our Submission:

We thank you for the opportunity to make this submission to the Review of the Planning System. We are strongly of the opinion that local government is crucial in Planning issues as they are local people themselves and know the area, and issues that are pertinent to appropriate Planning approvals.

We also believe that the way in which developers are able to take advantage of the appeals system through VCAT disproportionately affects the residents in old established neighbourhoods, leading over time to significant loss of neighbourhood character and resident/ ratepayer amenity.

  • They say trees and gardens are the lungs of a city. Trees actually help clean the air by absorbing CO2 emissions. But we have noticed that the tree canopy around Toorak and surrounding suburbs seems to be disappearing.
  • Developers are clearing old gardens, removing trees and building basements/garages from boundary to boundary making it impossible to replant trees that will grow to a reasonable size. We now have trimmed hedges and pot plants.
  • We would like new homes/developments to be restricted to a site coverage of no more than 65%. Large blocks suitable for multi-unit development has led to an excess of large apartment building developments in the area. In addition to the loss of amenity and destruction of neighbourhood character, this places more stress on our old and inadequate infrastructure. Many houses storm-water just runs into lanes along the rear boundary.
  • Older developments were set back from the street boundary, allowing lawn and trees, and room for water to reach the ‘street trees’ which makes our city special. This not only softened the building but helped keep the ‘garden city’ for which Melbourne has become famous.
  • We ask Planning to re-instate set-backs from front and side boundaries for landscaping that will allow neighbours privacy and stop the intrusion of high walls without room to plant a screen. Often these walls are higher than the houses next door and take neighbours by ‘surprise’.
  • The hours builders are allowed to work is also an issue. They can build Monday til Friday from 7am to 8pm, and on Saturday and Sunday from 9am til 8pm, creating unacceptable levels of noise and traffic problems. We would like Sundays to be free of builders for residents to enjoy peaceful amenities.
  • Underground parking is the norm but the main problem is what happens around the new building- lots of paving, and very little garden or porous ground . So when it rains, there is run off into neighbouring houses and garages. There needs to be changes to the planning code to ensure area around new houses/developments has a minimum 35% of porous land.
  • The environmental impacts are:-
    • Increased traffic flows, often creating dangerous ingress/egress conditions
    • Reduction of on street parking places. Many old apartment blocks do no have any off-street parking!
    • It would appear that the electricity supply is insufficient to cater for new houses which utilize three-phase power resulting in black-outs and the requirement to increase the load to the area.
    • Increase in run-off into stormwater systems that cannot cope with heavy rainfall
    • Loss of recharge into groundwater aquifers
  • We believe that notwithstanding present regulations community members should be entitled to voice their objections for any new development applications in order to protect their residential amenity and the neighbourhood character.
  • We believe that Toorak Village should move from a Major Activity Centre to a Neighbourhood Centre. The Stonnington Council and TVRAG have been fighting to change this for quite some time. When first proposed, we both asked the Govt. not to do this, as it did not comply with the stated criteria for a MAC. Stonnington Council commissioned a special economic study in 2005 to convince the Government to change the classification to a Neighbourhood Activity Centre. This study showed that The Village could never be a major activity centre (happy to supply copy on request).
  • Liquor stores should be better controlled and not be allowed to operate 24/7 especially those located near late night venues. Our experience is that young people on their way to late night venues, get ‘tanked’ in the streets and cars before they actually enter the late night venue and this creates an anti-social effect in the area.
  • We are concerned that there seem to be inconsistencies in the planning and licensing system that allows inappropriate late night venues to be established in predominantly residential areas. For example there are three late night venues in Toorak Village, which is only 300 metres in length. These venues are licensed til 1.30am, 3am and 4am with a total number of 1280 patrons. The impact on surrounding residents is evidenced by lots of bad behaviour, young intoxicated people wandering onto Toorak Rd and adjoining streets, loud voices, bottles and cans thrown into neighbouring houses, urination and vomit in shop fronts. We are working with the local police and the Council but the problem never goes away.
  • We suggest the following:
    • Late night venues should not be allowed in very small shopping strips such as Toorak Village, which is totally surrounded by residential properties with no buffer to protect the resident’s rights to quiet enjoyment.
    • Before a late night venue is approved the concentration, saturation and the cumulative effect of other venues in the area must be considered.
    • When considering an application for a late night venue, parking supply in residential streets should never be counted towards approval, only commercial parking supply should be considered.
    • Late night venues should terminate at 1am and be restricted to no more than 200 patrons unless the venue is located in an industrial area that does not effect residential amenity.