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Application for Planning Permit D/766/2009 – 254-256 Murray Road, Preston VIC 3072 which is for the demolition of existing dwelling, construction of a three-story building comprising 16 dwellings and a basement car park directly next door to my property at 252 Murray Road.

For the benefit of those cc’d on this e-mail, I have summarised some of my objections below:-
• There is no precedent on Murray Road for atriple-story development and the proposal is completely out of character with the present streetscape. My property is an Edwardian weatherboard cottage which would be completely dwarfed by the proposed development.
• The shadow diagram at 3.00pm would block light and winter sun on the West-side of my property.
• Windows will overlook my property invading my privacy.
• The basement car park with entry/exit via rear laneway would cause extra noise and congestion in an already busy and narrow laneway.
• Visitors will be forced to park on Murray Road creating further competition for already limited spaces.
• There is very little open-space proposed. Of what space is proposed, it is around the perimeter of the building only creating potential for more noise.
• Proposal is set too far forward from existing house street frontages along Murray Road.

In summary, the proposal is too big, too modern and too ugly.

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Yours faithfully,

David Isdale

Seems we are not the only Northcote in the world experiencing Inappropriate Building Developments although, the people in the Northcote Ward, Battersea, England were more fortunate than their counterparts in Northcote, Victoria, Australia.

Northcote Ward, Battersea

Clapham Junction planning application WITHDRAWN by the Developers.

This welcome news was announced some 48 hours before Wandsworth’s Planning Committee met on Wednesday evening (May 20th) to consider the application. The report by the Borough Planning Officer was recommending that the application be refused because

a. there was insufficient benefit to public transport infrastructure in the town centre

b. affordable housing was omitted from the scheme.

A spokesman for the developer is reported as saying “We are deeply disappointed therefore that the report to the committee was not able to give the proposal its backing”.

Twin towers in Clapham Junction « Clapham Junction Action Group

Darebin locals has been meeting for the past couple of months with the intention of initiating a Darebin Transition Initiative. Transition initiatives are about exploring positive community responses to climate change and peak oil. They are about banding together both existing and new initiatives and groups under a common vision for the local area.

We are holding a small visioning workshop next Sunday the 14th of June to help guide our group and we thought that you or someone else from your organisation might be interested in coming, and we would certainly love to have you along.

When: Sunday 14 June 2009 | 1-4 pm
Where: Loophole – 834a High St, Thornbury

Also see www.transitiontowns.org.

In a nutshell developers are seeking the zoning to be changed on the Australian Horizons site in Arthurton Road and Elm Street from industrial to mixed use.

The developers are proposing to construct 350 units (a combination of studio apartments and larger residences) up to twelve storeys high plus commercial and retail premises.

It is estimated that there will be a thousand extra residents not including the number of people using the site each day which greatly exceeds this figure. In addition traffic is estimated to grow by at least an extra thousand cars per day. To date the plan includes widening Arthurton Road by five metres, but no further consideration has been given to the surrounding streets that are likely to be inundated with this surge in traffic that they are not designed to cater for.

The fight continues but with little vengeance or progress.

DADA now appears on Wikepedia – Northcote albeit as an external link but the word spreads.

Melbourne2030 is nothing but rhetoric and a guideline for councils in what “not to do” to protect against urban sprawl and inappropriate developments.

Sadly, the only ones who appear to want these two ugly towers are the greedy developers who neither live in the area or give a toss how it affects the local community.

What chance do we have when our own council staged but a small wimpy protest.

Darebin Appropriate Development Association, fighting against development at All Nations Park / Plaza.