NAC'S

Boroondara Council has proposed development of 48 “Neighbourhood Activity Centres” (NAC’s) over, on and around strip shopping centres or villages throughout the municipality of Boroondara. This is a fatally flawed policy having been developed before the last election and is based on the Brumby Government’s Housing Capacity Strategy under which each metropolitan Council was given a target population figure to accommodate. The new Coalition Government has renounced this policy and has scrapped the Brumby blueprints - Melbourne 2030 and Melbourne @ 5 million. Boroondara Council is proceeding regardless.

High-rise Enterprise corridors

Our organisation joined Planning Backlash and Boroondara Residents’ Action Group plus 18 local community groups to save our strip shopping centres from proposed density of 3 to 7 storey developments; to protect surrounding residential areas from development “creep”; to protect heritage buildings from inappropriate development; to protect suburbs from high rise “Enterprise Corridors”; and to guard against traffic congestion. At a meeting of the Council’s Urban Planning Special Committee on 21 March 2011, attended by over 150 residents, 40 speakers spelt out concerns to Councillors with only 4 giving support to the NAC Grand Plan.

Carpark connundrum

PPL VIC has become increasingly alarmed over the fact that, in 10 of the proposed NAC’s, public car parks are shown on plans as designated development zones with buildings of 3 to 4 storeys. Shopping Centres which stand to lose public car parks are: Ashwood, Ashburton, Burwood Village, Hartwell, Middle Camberwell, Canterbury Village, Glenferrie Hill, Maling Road Village, Upper Glen Iris and East Camberwell.

"Suspect rationale"

Julianne Bell PPL VIC Secretary commented,

"The suspect rationale for dispensing with large public car parks appears to be that the NAC is modelled on a village and that people - according the Council strategic planners - are to be encouraged to walk to shops. While this might have been good enough for folks in pre-war suburban Melbourne, it hardly fits modern life. It is evident that to traders loss of car parking means loss of customers and clients; it will undermine families who rely on cars for mobility e.g. doing shopping on the way to and from work and taking children to school; and will disadvantage the elderly and disabled. Boroondara Mayor Nicholas Tragas said on 4 April 2011 that he ‘does not support the sale of public carparks for the construction of Residential/Commercial /Office Buildings’. But will other Councillors agree with him and how will they vote on the total package of the implementation of Neighbourhood Activity Centres?”

This looks familiar

Rod Binnington, PPL VIC Committee member, said,

“It appears to me, after having attended several ‘information’ sessions run by the Bayside Council, that plans for implementing Neigbourhood Activity Centres on Bayside strip shopping precincts have a great deal in common with City of Boroondara. It seems that they both follow an economic model of village life as propounded by planning guru Mr Marcus Spiller of SGS Economics & Planning Pty Ltd. (His company was said to have been commissioned by the Brumby Government to draw up plans to accommodate Melbourne’s population boom.) Even the Bayside plans for disposal of carparks are similar to those of Boroondara. At a Bayside Council ‘walk and talk’ session regarding proposed NAC sites on 10 April 2011, Ms Roz Hansen, a noted planner who led the tour, commented: ‘Car-parks are a development opportunity’. In my view, Bayside traders should be alert and alarmed over NAC plans in their suburbs.”

Residents, traders, urged to attend next urban Planning Special meeting

Boroondara community groups are urging residents and traders to attend the next Urban Planning Special Committee meeting at 8 pm on Monday 30 May 2011 at Council Chambers in the old Camberwell Town Hall where Councillors will vote on the Draft Activity Centres Strategy.

Source: Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. (PPL VIC), Media Release 20 April 2011
Contacts:

Julianne Bell Secretary PPL VIC Mobile: 0408 022408, jbell5[at]bigpond.com

Rod Binnington PPL VIC Mobile: 0403 750303 TruePlanning[at]gmail.com