Lilydale bypass: Push on to construct arterial road around gateway town

There’s a new push to finally build a major new Lilydale road, but a trader fears it will kill off the already struggling Main St.

There’s a renewed push to finally make the Lilydale bypass a reality, more than 70 years after it was first mooted.

But not everyone is a fan of the plan, with one trader fearing diverting traffic away from Main St, already struggling after the Lilydale level crossing removal, could “kill off” the town.

Yarra Ranges councillors have endorsed the Lilydale Structure Plan, to guide land use and development in the town for the next 20-30 years.

According to the council report, community feedback throughout the Structure Plan has indicated a strong preference that the bypass should be advocated for by council, to be delivered as a state government project.

“The community cited that the bypass would be beneficial for the town by allowing Main St to be reimagined as a pedestrian street, and by improving travel times through the town,” it said.

It comes as work continues on the Kinley housing development in Lilydale, set to create 3200 new homes for 8000 people — a 70 per cent increase in Lilydale’s population.

Talk about the bypass began in 1950 and in 2006 the Liberals promised $40 million to build it.

Under the Liberal plan, the 1.2 to 1.5km bypass was set to be built west of Anderson St, behind the shops, to Maroondah Highway.

Speaking at a recent council meeting, Lilydale & District Historical Society president Sue Thompson urged councillors to lobby both parties to commit to the project in the lead up to the state election.

Cars travelling along Main St, Lilydale.

“Unless the bypass becomes a priority of Yarra Ranges Council, Lilydale will become run over by more and more cars clogging up our main street as they drive through,” Ms Thompson said.

She said the state government already owned the land the bypass would be built on and the bypass would be built on pillars, like a flyover, similar to how level crossing removal bridges were built.

She said drivers heading out to the Yarra Valley travelling on the bypass would avoid three sets of traffic lights in Main St.

“Underneath (the bypass) you could have bike paths, market gardens, play equipment and our own version of silo art but with pillars, with murals featuring the history of the district,” she said.

Ms Thompson said traffic on Main St could then be reduced to two lanes and the sides of the street opened up, creating a nice atmosphere and allowing shops to expand out, or the creation of more parks.

“It transforms your town into a village rather than a drive-through shopping centre where nobody stops,” she said.

Ms Thompson said the new rail bridge built for the Lilydale level crossing removal was six lanes wide and if traffic got worse Main St could be widened with more lanes, putting the town’s heritage trees at risk.

But The Yarra Valley Smokery owner Alex Tsao, whose business is on Main St, said he didn’t believe a bypass was the answer to solving Lilydale’s traffic woes.

“You look at a lot of country towns where they have put a bypass in and a lot of country towns have been killed by the bypass – businesses have been killed,” he said.

“I worry the same thing could happen here.

“They should just improve what they have half done with the level crossing project.”

Mr Tsao suggested moving the Main St heritage trees to another location and widening the road to allow an extra lane each way.

He said despite the level crossing removal, traffic was still banking up along the street, especially during peak hour, caused by new traffic lights where the rail line used to be.

He said business at his store was now 40 per cent worse than it had been during Covid.

Cr Tim Heenan said he was a “realist” about the bypass.

“The reality is we’ve got a federal and state government that are in enormous deficit, we’ve got financial constraints that we have to deal with as a council,” he said.

“We have to focus on projects that we can do – and I’ll be focusing on I suppose the realistic stuff, not withstanding that we have to have the bigger picture.”

A render of the proposed Lilydale of the future, under new building height limits.

The Structure Plan also outlines preferred building heights in the town centre, which vary from a maximum of six storeys, concentrated around the new train station, to three-four storeys on higher-lying land east of the Olinda Creek.

Cr Sophie Todorov said there had been some opposition from the community to having multistorey buildings in the CBD up to six-storeys.

“But I feel pleased to say I believe we’ve had these discussions … and that the proposed rezoning of those areas in Lilydale are going to be appropriate and suitable for multistorey developments.”

Evelyn state Liberal MP Bridget Vallence said many Lilydale residents had raised with her the need for a bypass, but community consultation on the plan was critical to ensure there was no detriment to local business.