Back to the drawing board on Fishermans Bend says Labor MP Foley
ALBERT Park Labor MP Martin Foley has vowed to tear up the Fishermans Bend strategic plan if his party wins the election.
Inner East
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ALBERT Park Labor MP Martin Foley has vowed to tear up the Fishermans Bend strategic plan and go back to the drawing board if his party triumphs at the polls in November.
Speaking at last night’s Montague Community Alliance meeting, Mr Foley called for a moratorium on all development applications in the urban renewal precinct.
He said Labor’s starting point for appropriate development in the area would be the Draft Vision released by Planning Minister Matthew Guy last September. At the time he dismissed the document as Mr Guy’s “Kowloon Nightmare by the Bay”, referring to the high-density precinct of Hong Kong.
The Draft Vision included staggered maximum height limits of four, eight and 18 storeys, but these were replaced by discretionary height limits of up to 30 storeys in the Strategic Framework Plan released on July 28.
Mr Foley declared this plan to be nothing more than a “marketing document” and promised to put forward a comprehensive alternative plan” before the election.
TELL US YOUR THOUGHTS ON LABOR’S PLANS TO DUMP THE COALITION’S VISION FOR FISHERMANS BEND.
Greens candidate David Collis said the council’s original Montague Structure Plan should be restored, along with residents’ notice and appeal rights.
“The Planning Minister should not have God-like powers to call in developments,” Mr Collis said.
Liberal candidate Shannon Eeles was absent from the event, telling the Leader she felt its outcome was a “fait accompli” after seeing Labor’s press release slamming the State Government’s “botched planning process”.
Ms Eeles said she was happy to meet with people separately to talk about the precinct.
Residents at the meeting said their tops concerns were height limits, schools and public transport.
Port Phillip Council program manager Jacqui Banks said the council was working closely with the State Government on development in Fishermans Bend in the hopes of influencing planning decisions.
Mr Guy currently has 13 planning applications on his desk for 24 towers of up to 40 storeys, having already approved three medium-density applications.
He will pass authority for the precinct to the Metropolitan Planning Authority on October 1.
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Ms Banks said the council had secured a commitment from the MPA “that we’ll be involved from the outset on proposed developments, attending pre-application meetings with developers”.
While the council will not have authority over the outcomes, it would lobby for community infrastructure to be included in developments, and try to limit building heights.
Mr Guy declared Fishermans Bend a capital city zone in July 2012, taking planning authority from the council.
The project, touted as the biggest urban infill development in the Southern Hemisphere, will bring an extra 80,000 residents and 40,000 workers to the area.
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