By Adam Carey
It was virtually hand-to-hand combat between NIMBYs and YIMBYs on the streets of inner Melbourne on Sunday, as a rally against three proposed housing towers in Elsternwick drew more than 100 project opponents and four heavily outnumbered supporters, who planted themselves amid the crowd and heckled.
The pro-development heckling was forceful enough to frustrate state opposition housing spokesman Richard Riordan, who eventually lost his cool and called the chief heckler a “dill”.
An anti-Woolworths development demonstrator confronts a YIMBY heckler at a community rally in Elsternwick. Credit: Wayne Taylor
At issue is a bitterly contested proposal by Woolworths, which seeks to build a supermarket and three towers with 148 apartments on the disused site of the former ABC studios in Elsternwick, across the street from Melbourne’s Holocaust Museum.
Woolworths and its developer, Pace, already have a permit issued by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2022 to build 134 apartments at the site. The tribunal and Glen Eira City Council had previously rejected Woolworths’ proposal for a larger development, due to concerns about its impact on Glen Huntly Road’s heritage streetscape and unreasonable overlooking upon neighbours.
Woolworths now seeks to gain approval for a proposal almost identical to the one it first submitted in 2017, which was rejected by the council and by VCAT. It has applied to Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny, using the state government’s new fast-track planning laws that bypass local government and VCAT.
The proposal has met the government’s threshold for fast-track assessment because it is valued at more than $50 million and includes 10 per cent affordable housing. Elsternwick was also declared in February one of 50 “train and tram activity centres” around Melbourne, where the government aims to facilitate the building of 300,000 new homes by 2051.
But local campaigners argue a win for Woolworths would erode the authority of VCAT.
Kathy Deacon, a spokesperson for Stop the Elsternwick Towers, said Woolworths “already has a permit, but they’ve chosen to ignore it because they didn’t get everything they wanted”.
Stop the Elsternwick Towers spokesperson Kathy Deacon addresses the rally in Elsternwick. Credit: Wayne Taylor
“Rather than respecting the process, they are going back to the same rejected plans and hoping the government will give them a free pass. If minister Kilkenny approves this, it proves that planning laws only exist for those who can’t afford to lobby their way around them,” Deacon said.
Stop the Elsternwick Towers took out a paid advertisement in The Age on Monday.
One of the protesters rallying against Woolworths’ revised development proposal on the site of the former ABC studios in Elsternwick.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The City of Glen Eira has urged the planning minister to refer the application to a special advisory committee, arguing VCAT’s decision set an important precedent that should not be overturned without rigorous independent assessment.
Rebecca McKenzie, CEO of Glen Eira, wrote to Kilkenny last month saying the site had been “the subject of an exhaustive process since 2018” and was ultimately approved with conditions by VCAT.
“The current application seeks to wind back all of these requirements that were imposed by VCAT,” McKenzie wrote.
Pace has framed its revamped proposal as a “response to the ongoing housing crisis experience in Victoria”.
The developer’s planning report, submitted with the fast-track application, notes that the site “currently benefits from a planning permit for a nine-storey development, issued at the direction of [VCAT] on 07 September 2022”.
“In response to the ongoing housing crisis experience in Victoria, Pace Development Group seeks to refine the development to deliver additional housing. This will crucially include a minimum 10 per cent dedicated to affordable housing,” the report says.
It also includes three more storeys on the southern tower and one extra storey on the northern tower.
Elsternwick resident Lyn Campbell in her backyard, which VCAT found would be unreasonably affected by overlooking. Credit: Wayne Taylor
Elsternwick resident Lyn Campbell lives behind the disused ABC studios, in a heritage-listed Victorian-era house named Glenmoore.
Her backyard, which includes a tennis court and a swimming pool, would be unreasonably affected by overlooking from the southern tower’s balconies, according to VCAT’s 2022 judgment, which imposed extra setbacks in response.
Woolworths and Pace are seeking to delete those setbacks in their latest application.
“We sit out there all the time,” Campbell said. “So the VCAT decision sought to protect us from overlooking and loss of privacy by limiting the number of families that could directly see into our property.”
A render of the Woolworths/Pace proposal that was rejected by the City of Glen Eira before being approved by VCAT with conditions.Credit: Woolworths
Campbell, who spearheaded Sunday’s community rally, said if Woolworths was sincerely committed to providing affordable housing, it would do so within its current permit for 134 apartments.
The rally was disrupted by economist Tom Hird, and three young adults, who stood among the demonstrators holding signs that read, “Let others live here too” and “Don’t be selfish, share Elsternwick”. Hird heckled Liberal politicians David Southwick and Riordan as they addressed the rally, and was challenged by several members of the demonstration, whose signs read, “Woolies are Bullies” and “Seven years of No means No”.
“I’m a local resident and I’m just angry about people being selfish,” Hird later told The Age.
“I’m not a political party member or being paid by a developer, I’m a professional economist and I see the disaster that is planning in Melbourne and across Australia and, frankly, across the western world, and it’s made me angry. I saw this demonstration and I thought, my kids are 24, 22, living at home, no prospect of moving out, because of this.”
Riordan said the community had been through a seven-year ordeal and ultimately accepted a compromise plan to build 134 apartments.
“This community has done more than enough in its preparedness to allow for more housing and services in a responsible way. We cannot have a system where we take the voice and choice from neighbourhoods,” he said.
Josh Burns, federal Labor MP for Macnamara, said the community had made clear three years ago that Woolworths needed to compromise.
“This decision should not be re-litigated. A fair process has already happened, and a fair outcome was agreed to. The original decision by VCAT should stand,” Burns said.
The Allan government declined to comment while the proposal is being considered.
A spokesperson for Pace said the project would be subject to a statutory planning process and design assessment.
“The proposal takes into account feedback received through previous planning processes, including from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. There has been a history of community engagement over many years in relation to the site.”
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