NEW guidelines for the future of housing in the Kingston municipality have finally been sent to the planning minister for approval.
Kingston Council’s draft housing strategy and neighbourhood character study was first endorsed for consultation in April 2019, and has been in the works longer than that. A 2021 draft of the strategy saw 77.24 per cent of land in the Kingston municipality zoned “neighbourhood residential”, limiting development to two storeys.
More than four years on from the approval of the first draft strategy, Kingston Council has finalised its proposed planning scheme amendment to make the changes permanent and has submitted it to planning minister Sonya Kilkenny to be ticked off.
The proposed changes to council’s planning restrictions were assessed by an independent panel, which published its report earlier this year. The panel broadly supported council’s draft plans.
Although Kingston Council has agreed with most of the panel recommendations, it has chosen to ignore advice to rezone some land in Mentone and Parkdale. The panel recommended making changes to land currently zoned “DDO1”, which limits development to two storeys.
A report prepared by Kingston Council officers read that walkable catchments of the Mentone and Parkdale activity centres should not be zoned for three-storey development, as the panel suggests. “Council officers are unclear where the panel has found the strategic basis for this change in character designation in the background work. In addition, no strategic work has been undertaken to review the application of the DDO1,” the report read. “[The] recommendation which seeks to apply a zone with a three-storey height that is inconsistent with the current and proposed DDO1 is not accepted.”
The panel’s advice to rezone small areas of Clayton South and Parkdale as “general residential”, raising their height limits to three storeys, was accepted by Kingston Council.
In addition to its two and three storey height limits, council’s draft housing strategy also designates multiple areas between Mentone and Moorabbin as “substantial change” areas, meaning developments of up to four storeys are likely to be permitted.
Council has also chosen not to incorporate the panel recommendation to retain the current zones of The Bridge Hotel and private schools in the coastal character area into its planning scheme amendment.
Planning minister Sonya Kilkenny is also the MP for Carrum, which encompasses the Kingston local government area.
Before its 2019 draft proposal, Kingston Council put together a “Kingston Residential Strategy Update” in 2014.
The housing strategy has undergone many changes in the last four years. Just 51.3 per cent of land was in the neighbourhood residential zone when the plan was drafted in 2019. A revised plan council drafted in August 2020 put 92.91 per cent of land inside the NRZ, but this proposal was later abandoned after state government opposition (“More changes for housing strategy” The News 3/11/2021).
The housing strategy has been the subject of intense community scrutiny – Kingston Council received more than 500 submissions on the plan during its 2022 consultation period. Kingston Residents Association vice-president Alex Breskin said the final changes needed to reflect the interests of the community, and not of developers. “With the lack of climate action by governments across the world and especially given the fact we have just experienced the hottest July on record globally, we need to rethink where development is going to be located so that it can fit the needs of residents in the long term, not for the profits of private developers in the short term,” he said.
For more information on Kingston Council’s C203 planning amendment visit yourkingstonyoursay.com.au/c203
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 16 August 2023