By JESSE GRAHAM
BETWEEN termite and water damage, a patchwork of buildings stuck together, and Yarra Ranges Council’s main civic centre infrastructure from “the beginning of time” needs to be overhauled – and soon.
Councillors made a unanimous decision at their 11 August meeting to green light a feasibility study for the redevelopment of the Lilydale Civic Centre, at a cost of about $420,000.
Under the banner of the Flexible Future Project, two fully-costed plans mapping out the centre’s future are expected to be brought before council early next year.
In a tour of the current civic centre, Flexible Future Project director Scott Hodges described the current building as a “hodgepodge” of portables buildings and extensions connected to one another as they were needed.
“We found that the reality with this construction is that it was put together in such a hodgepodge way, without consistent, regular funding because we decided to sweat the asset – investing no more money in the building because we were hoping we’d get a new one,” he said.
In a media release, the council noted that the project was put on hold while it investigated whether it would be able to relocate to the former Swinburne campus in Lilydale.
With the plan to move to the campus falling through, Mr Hodges said the council had to assess the future of the current building, which had numerous issues including water damage, out-dated infrastructure, cracks in the walls, asbestos sheeting and repaired termite damage – just to name a few.
During the tour, Mr Hodges pointed out numerous instances of cracks, of buildings shifting due to ageing, and of infrastructure such as an air-conditioning unit, located under the main area of the building.
He said the problem for council was that simple works to improve parts of the building then triggered a requirement for other improvements to bring areas up to current compliance standards.
“The sad part is … we don’t use compliance as the major driver for the project,” he said.
“A lot of this is compliant with the standards of the time, but not compliant with modern-day standards.
“Compliance is a key element that makes a domino effect – for example, should we undertake some quite minimal refurbishment, i.e. fire systems and air-conditioning, it then triggers further elements in the building.”
The idea for how the redeveloped building would look is still under consideration, but Mr Hodges said the aim was to salvage as much of the existing building as possible while keeping a low price tag.
He refused to speculate on the costs of any redevelopment, but said that, taking delays into account, the whole project might be completed in the coming four years if it was accepted by council.
