A BID to keep open space near Mentone Station out of the hands of developers has been launched by Kingston Council.
In January of this year, the state government rezoned land at 79 Balcombe Road for potential future development of up to six storeys. The state government-owned site was not reinstated as part of the station gardens after the Level Crossing Removal Project wrapped up work in Mentone.
At their most recent meeting, Kingston councillors voted unanimously to explore the possibility of an “in-principle offer” to the state government to purchase the land. Council will also propose a minimum 25-year long-term lease as another solution.
As part of the vote, council resolved to write to state government MPs urging them to ensure the land is retained while discussions about its future are ongoing.
The proposal to explore the purchase of the land was put forward by Kingston mayor Georgina Oxley. She took aim at the state government’s processes, saying that council “found out through a Heritage Victoria application that someone wants to put an apartment building on top of this land, right up against a significant heritage building.”
“The Mentone community has done everything right and for decades the Friends of Mentone Station Gardens and the wider Mentone community have shown up, volunteered, and cared for that precinct significantly,” Cr Oxley said. “Countless residents have made submissions through the state’s own Pick My park process to make this land open space and not a development.
“Countless submissions on one small parcel of land is not apathy from our community, that is a community telling its government clearly and politely exactly what it wants and what the Mentone community needs. What did they get? An amendment approved over the top of them with no open space; no referral to the VPA; and the council, and by proxy its community, that has invested in this precinct for a generation stripped of any say.
“This land is the gateway to an activity centre the state itself calls a priority. It should not be quietly sold off while the community that fought for it reads all about it in a planning notice.”
The approved motion read that any “future formal unconditional offer, or monetary offer or agreement” made by Kingston Council will be “subject to council consideration or an officer report.”
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 2 September 2026