Sky rail Melbourne: residents given option to sell home

UPDATE: ANGER over Premier Daniel Andrews’s sky rail plan has forced his government to offer to purchase upset residents’ homes in a $100 million buyback plan.

Artists' impression of SKYrail over backyards

• Fears sky rail will tear communities apart

ANGER over Premier Daniel Andrews’s sky rail plan has forced his government to offer to purchase upset residents’ homes in a $100 million buyback plan.

But families have told the Herald Sun they fear the buyout scheme will divide communities if some areas sell up and ghost streets are left behind.

Mr Andrews left his embattled public transport minister, Jacinta Allan, to reveal the expensive plan.

MORE: Premier says nearby residents to be compensated

Sky rail protesters to fight government plans

Ms Allan said residents directly along the railway line had until June 30 next year to decide whether they would stay or take up the offer to go.

Residents protest against sky rail at 1 Treasury Place earlier this year. Picture: Jay Town

An artist’s impression of sky rail.

She said the final cost of voluntary acquisitions would be absorbed by the sky rail project’s $1.6 billion budget.

About 135 home and unit owners are likely to be eligible. The sale of all properties at current market rates would cost about $100 million.

It is less than two years since Labor criticised the former Napthine government’s East West Link acquisition process.

But Ms Allan could not say what would happen to empty properties if families moved out.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy accused Mr Andrews of lying about the impact of the sky rail, which will run for 8km over three sections of the Cranbourne-Pakenham line.

Trains will run about three storeys above street level in Carnegie, Clayton and Noble Park, allowing for nine level-crossing removals.

About 135 home and unit owners are likely to be eligible for the scheme.

A sky rail for the Frankston line has not been ruled out, but Ms Allan said it was too early to consider compensation for any other sky rail.

Murrumbeena resident Edward Meysztowicz, who has campaigned for level crossings to be removed by sinking tracks, said he and his neighbours would soon be in “shadow land” if sky rail went ahead.

He said buying up homes was not the answer.

“It will fracture and effectively break the community,” he said.

Another Murrumbeena resident, Michelle Letho, questioned the cost of buying properties when compared to an alternative rail plan: “We are a community and we do not want to be divided.”

Mr Guy said Victorians were told sky rail and the open space beneath would create a “utopia” with “barbecues and parkland”.

“Now we are being told that if people want to be bought out, rather than face sky rail, they can,” he said. “What’s changed in three months?

The project by the numbers.

Ms Allan denied the scheme was an acknowledgment of sky rail’s unpopularity.

“We’re listening to local residents, while we get on with this essential work,” she said.

“It’s clear there is strong local support for the removal of these level crossings from residents and traders.

“But we recognise that those who directly abut the corridor need some extra support,” Ms Allan said.

There are 74 buildings where the 135 homeowners live, directly next to the rail line, that are likely to be eligible for the buyout.

Stamp duty would be paid on the purchase of the next property by those selling up, as well as “reasonable costs” such as moving or legal bills.

For those who decline the offer, extra landscaping and fencing will be offered to residents to help block out the new structure.

[e-mail]

@Media_Matt