Out of the loop: The questions councils desperately want answered on ‘nebulous’ SRL

Three angry Melbourne councils have warned they are being shut out of plans to build towers up to 40 storeys tall in their areas, as the state government seizes control of local planning laws around the new Suburban Rail Loop stations.

The councils – Monash, Whitehorse and Kingston – say the rail loop will reshape their suburbs yet the government is refusing to release even basic details about the drastic increase in housing and development around the SRL East’s six underground stations.

The state government says its flagship $34.5 billion underground train line between Cheltenham and Box Hill will open by 2035 and lead to more than 70,000 new homes and 230,000 permanent jobs around the new stations by the 2050s.

In April, the Suburban Rail Loop Authority (SRLA) released “key directions” for new planning rules that will apply in precincts stretching 1.6 kilometres from each stop. Buildings between 18 and 40 storeys have been flagged around the stations, reducing in height the further they are from the rail line.

But the three eastern suburbs councils say they have been kept in the dark, slamming a lack of information about the projected pace of population growth in their areas.

They say there are unanswered questions about who will pay for schools, sport facilities and other essential infrastructure to serve a population forecast to more than double over the next 30 years.

“The lack of even basic detail and identification of key issues and challenges is a significant shortcoming,” Monash Council said in its submission to the SRLA’s consultation process on its key directions, which closed last week.

Monash – which will have three SRL stations at Clayton, Glen Waverley and Monash University – said the “distinct lack of detail” meant it was “unclear to [council] officers and the community as to what form and content the ultimate Precincts Plans will take when released in late 2024″.

Whitehorse City Council said some key directions for its Box Hill and Burwood stations were “broad and nebulous”, contained “vague platitudes” and failed to provide “any meaningful information or rationale to support them”.

It has particular concerns about a lack of plans for new schools, open space and community facilities to cater for the expected population boom.

The Suburban Rail Loop East worksite in Burwood. Credit: Paul Jeffers

“Current education facilities are approaching, or are at capacity, and council is not aware of any new facilities being proposed,” Whitehorse said.

The City of Kingston echoed this, saying it would not have enough libraries, kindergartens, community hubs or maternal and childcare services if the population around Cheltenham and Clayton grew as much as the SRLA expected.

“It is unclear how the state government intends to fund this infrastructure, when it will be delivered, who will be responsible for delivery and the administration of funds and by what mechanism,” it said in its submission.

Kingston said it has been denied access to SRLA technical background reports and studies used for the projected population and employment figures.

“The community has been tasked with providing feedback on significant ideas in the absence of any context or technical explanation,” Kingston said.

Monash said the SRLA had given “no explanation” for how it arrived at the proposed new building height limits of up to 20 storeys at Clayton and 25 storeys in Glen Waverley and Monash, and it was impossible to determine if those hight limits were necessary to achieve the targeted population growth.

It also criticised the SRLA’s plan for blocks of buildings 25 storeys high to transition down to blocks of six-storey buildings as “inappropriate and abrupt”.

Meanwhile, the SRLA’s references to delivering housing diversity and inclusion had “no detail on what this means or how it will be delivered in practice”.

An SRLA spokesperson said it had held more than 60 hours of workshops with local councils and had shared detailed technical information with them.

“Local councils have been actively involved in the process, and their existing plans and feedback continues to inform the structure plans for areas around each station,” the spokesperson said. “We have built on existing plans and policies commissioned by councils, and these priorities are reflected in our work to date.”

Whitehorse, however, said in its submission that despite significant consultation with the SRLA it was “very unclear how any of the council’s feedback has been incorporated into the draft key directions”.

It asked the SRLA to collaborate “rather than inform council after developing documents at different stages”.

Former premier Daniel Andrews announced the Suburban Rail Loop before the 2018 election as a 90-kilometre orbital rail loop stretching from Cheltenham to Werribee.

The government has only planned and committed to building the first stage of that concept – SRL East – with tunnelling to start in 2026.

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