Stonnington Council settles on five Prahran properties to make way for open space

A MELBOURNE council plans to spend more than $150 million over the next 20 years buying up properties in Prahran to make room for more open space.

Council’s land grab in Prahran

A MELBOURNE council plans to spend more than $150 million over the next 20 years buying up properties to make room for more open space.

Stonnington Council has proposed to put a public acquisition overlay on five Prahran properties, which would see the council acquire five individual parcels of land between Bangs and Clifton streets.

The acquisition, also known as Amendment C184, is part of the council’s Strategies for Creating Open Space strategy. Stonnington has the second lowest amount of public space per head in all of Victoria.

Despite getting approval from a majority, councillors were divided in their opinions.

South Ward councillor Sam Hibbins said he was “keen to see improvement in the public realm”, including better pedestrian links, footpaths and trees.

But fellow South Ward councillor Claude Ullin had a different view, labelling the acquisition as “just a walkway between all the areas” and an “incredible waste of money”.

The properties included for future public open space are 22 and 25 Regent St, 22 and 27 Mount St and 34 Clifton St in Prahran.

Stonnington Council received eight submissions, which all “generally opposed” the amendment for a number of reasons including insufficient notice given, loss of development potential for identified sites and loss of business and compensation.

The council will now ask the Minister for Planning Matthew Guy to appoint a panel to consider the submissions and the amendment.