Planning fears

By Kath Gannaway
THE loss of neighbourhood character and fears about being hemmed in by unit development were among the issues raised at a planning session to discuss the C97 amendment to the Housing Strategy.
The shire’s planners set up the complex series of maps and overlays which spelt out the housing strategy in the supper room at the Memorial Hall on Wednesday, 29 September.
Between 20 and 30 people attended the session which the council’s Executive Officer of Strategic Planning Claudette Fahy said was an important part of the consultation process for the amendment.
The housing strategy was adopted by council last year, after two years of preparation and consultation involving public meetings.
Many of the people attending the meeting were among the 40,000 residents affected by the C97 amendment who received letters from the council setting out how their property would be affected.
Ms Fahy said the Housing Strategy set out the framework for where the council wanted additional housing to happen in Yarra Ranges, and how it should look.
She explained “The amendment is about changes to planning scheme controls that make the housing strategy work on the ground.”
The C97 meetings are part of a two-month public consultation process which will ultimately go back to the Minister for Planning for a decision.
Ms Fahy said what was now proposed in terms of consolidation was very much reduced from what went out to the community in the first instance.
“It is a very much pared-down version and that was in response to the community,” she said.
For Healesville resident Val Owen, and others at the meeting, it is not pared down enough.
She said the consolidation, which she said was matched only by that proposed for Chirnside Park, would lead to the building of 900 new dwellings along Maroondah Highway and abutting streets.
“Consolidation takes precedent over neighbourhood character, and that is of great concern,” she said.
“The area in our town which has the most character is the very area that will lose it under this arrangement,” she said.
Long-time resident Annette Hill shared that concern.
“These will be the slums of Healesville in 50 years’ time,” she said, citing in particular the multiple-unit development and subdivision of large house blocks in and around the town for dual and triple occupancy.
“I’m glad I’m at the tail end of my life and won’t be around to see it,” she said.
John Hodgson said he was in favour of providing more housing opportunities, but didn’t believe units were the best way to meet the need.
“I don’t want to see a million units, I just want to see the place opened up,” he said. “We have the land, we just need to make it more available.”
Two residents at either end of the town say under the C97 amendment they will be hemmed in by unit and dual occupancy development, but are precluded from subdividing their larger properties.
Ms Fahy said while letters were sent out to property owners directly affected by the changes, anyone could make a submission.
Submissions must be made in writing to Yarra Ranges Council by 31 October.