Neighbours call for Whitehorse Council to expand Kalang Park

A Whitehorse residents’ group, with the support of hundreds of neighbours, is fighting for a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to expand a Blackburn park, and protect it from development.

Bellbird Residents’ Advocacy Group is petitioning for Whitehorse Council to buy 60 Main St.

A Whitehorse residents’ group, with the support of hundreds of neighbours, is fighting for a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to expand a Blackburn park.

They are calling for Whitehorse Council to buy a property next to Kalang Park where a permit is active for the construction of three houses — plans which the council spent years fighting before losing at VCAT.

Bellbird Residents’ Advocacy Group is arguing turning the 1700sq m site into parkland would benefit the public and the environment, while stopping the future housing development adversely impacting the area.

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The group has begun a petition for the council to buy 60 Main St and incorporate the land into Blackburn Creeklands, which it will present to the council on May 27.

The land at 60 Main St has been on the market for about a year.

Organiser Alison Kirk said dedicated residents had already delivered hundreds of signatures to her, with many recognising the crucial opportunity at play.

She said the property being for sale was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to expand the park amid all the development encroaching on the area.

“We need to secure (the property) now or it’s gone,” Ms Kirk said.

“We’re not going to get anymore land or knock over houses.”

She said expanding Kalang Park would greatly improve the public asset, strengthening the wildlife corridor, augmenting tree canopy and creating more recreation space for the growing population.

Ms Kirk said the park was not only cherished by locals, but was used by nature-lovers who came from all over Melbourne to enjoy Blackburn’s bushland.

The site directly abuts Kalang Park in the Blackburn Creeklands.

Harcourts is advertising the vacant block as “prime land”, with an asking price of $2,650,000. The listing suggests buyers could “maximise the redevelopment potential” of the site, building their own “mega mansion” or using the permit for three homes.

The tribunal approved the plan for the double-storey houses in February 2016 after the council and residents spent more than four years fighting various designs for the property’s redevelopment.

The existing house on the block was demolished but the build did not proceed and the property was put on the market last year.

Ms Kirk said while the community would accept if the “inappropriate” houses were to be built along the park’s boundary, “it would be very distressing” and would largely impact public amenity.

The group has written to Box Hill state Labor MP Paul Hamer calling for State Government intervention as well as the candidates who ran in the federal election.

Ms Kirk said the situation was urgent.

“Once the property is developed, the opportunity for improving the park would be irretrievably lost.”

Whitehorse Council general manager human services Terry Wilkinson last week said the council had not identified the property “as a priority area for land acquisition”.

“Council is not considering buying the land,” he said.