Residents group calls for cap on height in Moonee Valley

A PROPOSED height restriction of 16 storeys for new buildings in Moonee Ponds should be expanded to include the entire municipality, a residents’ group says.

A petition with 1,600 signatures is delivered to Danny Pearson MP. Liz Jovanovic, Jenny Nola, Julie Nelson, Danny Pearson and Jane Robins pose with the petition. Picture: Ellen Smith

A PROPOSED height restriction of 16 storeys for Moonee Ponds needs to be expanded to include the entire municipality to protect it from overdevelopment, a residents’ group says.

While welcoming the State Government’s announcement last week of interim 16-storey height control measures for central Moonee Ponds, Save Moonee Ponds president Jenny Nola said the controls needed to go further.

Ms Nola said many people considered Planning Minister Richard Wynne’s approval of a
30-storey tower in the heart of Moonee Ponds a “betrayal” and said nothing of that scale should be built in Moonee Valley.

“Sixteen storeys … should be the maximum height in Moonee Valley,” she said. “It’s about not having overdevelopment. We’re not against development.”

Ms Nola said Moonee Valley Council needed to work hard during the next 12 months — before the interim controls come to an end — to ensure adequate future controls for the municipality were ready for implementation.

Moonee Valley Mayor Andrea Surace said the new interim mandatory controls would only apply to the Moonee Ponds Activity Centre and the council did not know when the controls would come into effect.

“If the pilot program proves successful, we would hope to see the State Government extend the ability for new controls to be introduced in other activity centres,” Cr Surace said.

She said the council would work closely with the State Government and hoped to establish permanent controls when the interim height controls expired.

Save Moonee Ponds gathered 1600 signatures on a petition opposing the 30-storey tower which was handed to Essendon state Labor MP Danny Pearson, who will table it in Parliament.

The new interim mandatory built form controls will not affect development at the Moonee Valley Racecourse, as the development went through a separate Advisory Committee process.