KINGSTON is no closer to having council’s requested residential zones approved by the state government almost three years after a statewide consultation with councils across Victoria began.
The independent Residential Zones Standing Advisory Committee, first tasked by the previous Liberal state government to liaise with councils to identify areas to be protected from overdevelopment and areas where more housing can be built, knocked backed Kingston Council’s 2014 request to have more than 75 per cent of the region classed as non-growth areas.
Council was advised to rethink its future housing policy amid concerns by some councillors that the area has been earmarked for “excessive” development while suburbs such as those in Melbourne’s east are protected from overdevelopment.
In late 2014 former Labor planning spokesman Brian Tee indicated his party would review “botched planning zones imposed on councils” if it won government (‘Game of zones may begin again’, The News 12/11/14) but the Andrews government has shown no inclination to revisit Kingston Council’s submission to have at least three-quarters of the municipality zoned as non-growth Neighbourhood Residential Zone areas.
Labor Planning Minister Richard Wynne has in fact decided, without consultation with Kingston Council, to impose a “discretionary” four-storey height limit for new housing in central Mentone, contrary to council’s 2013 Mentone Activity Centre Structure Plan that set a “mandatory” four-storey limit (‘Height limit change shock’, The News 23/12/15).
Repeated requests by The News to the Planning Minister’s office asking why the height limit is now discretionary have gone unanswered.
Council took two years to put together the Mentone Activity Centre Structure Plan after community consultation.
Kingston councillors said some residents blamed council for the delay in having new residential zones locked into place but council had followed the consultation and submission process put in place by the state government.
Council still has oversight of individual planning applications and councillors can “call them in” to be debated before approval or rejection.
A new submission to the state government’s Managing Residential Development Advisory Committee will be made by Kingston Council later this year. A draft submission, lodged at last month’s council meeting by council officers, forecast Kingston can be home to 15,254 new dwellings until the year 2031 and about 64 per cent will be apartments.
Officers stated council “has a pragmatic approach” to the need for more housing as Melbourne’s population rises but would prefer apartments to be mostly built in central activity centres such as Moorabbin, Cheltenham and Southland near public transport hubs.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 9 March 2016
