State Government called on to plan for major Lilydale quarry housing development

IT’S soon to be home to more than 7000 people, but not enough has been done by the State Government to fix traffic issues around the Lilydale quarry development according to a local councillor.

Yarra Ranges councillor Terry Avery is urging the State Government to do something about infrastructure before the 7000-resident quarry development opens.

MORE than 7000 people will call the biggest residential development in Melbourne’s east home, yet there is already gridlock on all major roads in the area.

Yarra Ranges councillor Terry Avery said time was running out for the State Government to improve ageing infrastructure, which will not sustain such a population increase.

He said pleas for cash to fix the already jam-packed roads and trains had gone unanswered, with developers set to start work on the multimillion-dollar Lilydale quarry project.

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The quarry project has been flagged as one of the government’s strategic development sites on its priority list for Melbourne’s future — the only one for the east.

“This is a project of state significance,’’ he said.

“We need to put infrastructure in place before we have 7000 new residents.”

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Cr Avery said peak-hour trains were already bursting at the seams with commuters, railway station carparks in Yarra Ranges and Maroondah already full and major roads in Mooroolbark and Lilydale congested.

“We’re not getting the due attention for our taxpaying dollars,” he said.

“Everyone is getting something spent on them except us.”

Cr Avery said Maroondah Highway in Lilydale and Hull and Mooroolbark roads were already a nightmare during peak times and desperately needed fixing.

Lilydale retirees Mark and Carol Fuller said they were looking to downsize and hoped to move into the quarry estate.

Mr Fuller said three-bedroom homes in the area were getting snapped up quickly so the quarry development was urgently needed, but he said traffic around Mooroolbark and Hull roads, particularly at the bridge, was terrible during peak-traffic times and something needed to be done

A Victorian Planning Authority spokesperson, who did not want to be named, said plans for the development would identify the infrastructure needs and how it would be funded.

“A future planning scheme amendment will include an infrastructure funding plan requiring the developer to fund necessary infrastructure and identify any state infrastructure upgrades including arterial roads,” they said.

The 163ha property — opened in 1878 by Dame Nellie Melba’s father David Mitchell — sits next to Box Hill Institute’s Lilydale Lakeside campus.

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