Housing height plans for six Suburban Rail Loop stations revealed

Plans for high-rise apartments along the Suburban Rail Loop have been pared back as the Allan government unveils rejigged plans for where the tallest towers and offices can be built along the underground line in Melbourne’s east.

Premier Jacinta Allan will on Monday release structure plans for the suburbs directly above the six stations to be built for Suburban Rail Loop East – Cheltenham, Clayton, Glen Waverley, Burwood, Monash and Box Hill.

An artist’s impression of the area around Cheltenham’s Suburban Rail Loop station.

The documents show in greater detail the preferred height limits, including dense pockets around each station earmarked for growth above 20 storeys and surrounding streets where buildings between six and 10 storeys will be encouraged.

The draft documents will spark further community consultation but come after the government sought feedback on its “key directions” maps, released in April, which outlined these heights more broadly.

Maps provided to The Age of two precincts show the densest part of Cheltenham will have a preferred height of 18 storeys, or 60 metres, while above Glen Waverley station towers are expected to reach 25 storeys, or 84 metres.

The government says it has used the last 11 months to adjust its plans in response to community feedback. Some commercial areas have doubled in height, on a smaller scale, while some residential areas have been lowered.

The precinct plan for Glen Waverley.

For both regions, proposed height limits along busy corridors such as the Nepean Highway, Bay Road, Springvale Road and Waverley Road have been cut from 10 storeys to eight.

A swath of suburban streets at the outer edge of each precinct which were earmarked for seven-storey buildings have also been wound back to four.

In Cheltenham, an employment precinct between Bay Road and Wangara Road has an increased height limit to allow developments up to eight storeys.

The move comes just a week after the government announced it would reduce height limits for medium-density apartments across the first 10 of its proposed activity centres earmarked for fast-tracked development.

The precinct plan for Cheltenham.

Allan has sought to sell the Suburban Rail Loop as “Australia’s biggest housing project” and now claims that the first stage, from Cheltenham to Box Hill, will deliver 70,000 additional homes.

“Building world-class public transport and building affordable homes around it – it just makes sense,” she told The Age.

“This is the vision that the Suburban Rail Loop delivers.

“This benefits our whole city because building enough homes for young people near transport and jobs in established suburbs will take pressure off the outer suburbs.”

Community consultation on the plans will begin from March 17 and once completed, an advisory panel will be formed and hold public hearings later this year.

Final decisions on the planning scheme will be completed in 2026.

Since April, locals have asked the government to include plans for more walking and cycling connections, along with more green and open spaces to accommodate the growth in population.

“We will continue to work with communities every step of the way, and local feedback will be really important in building and shaping these growing neighbourhoods,” Suburban Rail Loop Minister Harriet Shing said.

“As construction at six brand new Suburban Rail Loop station sites continues, we are planning for the services, open spaces and connections that locals have told us are important to them, closer to home.”

An artist’s impression of the Glen Waverley precinct.

The $35 billion Suburban Rail Loop East project is in its early stages with major tunnelling contracts already signed and the expectation that digging will begin in 2026.

However, questions remain over how a large part of the project will be funded, with the state expecting a third of its cost to be paid by the Commonwealth and the other third to be raised by charges around the precincts, known as value capture.

No details have been publicly released of what value capture models will ultimately be used and how they will work, despite the project’s business case estimating some could begin to be rolled out this year.

The Albanese government has contributed $2.2 billion but says any future funding is dependent on assessment by Infrastructure Australia, which has evaluated the project and advised federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King that further information was needed before future contributions could be made.

The $2.2 billion will largely go towards land acquisition costs, with $200 million going towards early works. Federal bureaucrats told a Senate estimates hearing last week that this allowed the money to provide community benefits regardless of what happened to the project in future.

Shing on Sunday announced the government was unlocking six other government land sites for housing and was investigating converting an unused office tower at the old VicRoads site in Kew into a residential building.

It is estimated the six sites could deliver up to 350 homes, with at least 10 per cent of this to be mandated as affordable housing.

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