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Secret Deals
The Triangle deal shows how much our Council has become engulfed by secrecy, suspicion and spin.

  • Council removed the right of residents to subject the Triangle to scrutiny at VCAT, a decision without precedent in Port Phillip
  • In May 2007 Council signed a secret Development Agreement with the developer and the State Government that it refuses to release to the public
  • Now Council is using our rates to produce slick advertising promoting the developer's interests.  

Broken Promises
In the latest St Kilda Triangle plan our Council has clawed back all the retail and restaurant space reductions agreed to in February. It's another broken promise by a Council that trashed its own planning controls for this unique foreshore Crown land site. And that's a view supported by two independent expert reports

Adjunct professor of architecture at RMIT University, and Age architecture critic, Norman Day said in The Age 5 July 2008 that it is important Victoria has a state government architect, but "they had to have more impact than John Denton [outgoing architect] has been able to have", he says. "We have got a good example: the St Kilda triangle should have had the very good involvement of the state architect because it is a state issue; it is not just a local City of Port Phillip issue."

Council has clawed back all the retail and restaurant space reductions agreed to in February
On 7 February, before more than 2,000 people, Council resolved to approve the plan with conditions related to the land use activities.  Amongst them:  

The minimum and maximum floor areas for the various subgroups of "retail" including "supermarket" and the general locations to which the various retail land uses categories will be directed including a reduction in shop floor space to a maximum total of 19,000sq.m. (2.8c - Council meeting minutes 7 February)
The  endorsed Development Plan lists the retail category as 19,000 sqm but omits to include in this figure - a market of 2000 sqm,  post office of 100 sqm, associated office with retail uses (eg bank, travel agency) of 1250sqm.      This gives  total retail of  22, 350 sqm.  Not to mention a further  2,000 sqm allocated for  office space.  (ref:  revised Master Plan, p. 73)

The maximum number of restaurant seats and the areas to which restaurants are encouraged to locate, with a reduction of total restaurant floor area from 6,100 sqm to 5,300 sqm. (2.8b - Council meeting minutes 7 February))
The endorsed Development Plan lists restaurant area as 5,300 sqm; takeaway area as 700 sqm.  That is a total of  6,000 sqm!  (ref:  revised Master Plan, p. 73)

Council has trashed its own planning controls for this unique foreshore Crown land site.
And that’s a view supported by two independent expert reports.

The community invested its trust and time in a lengthy community consultation process to develop an over-arching vision and planning guidelines for the Foreshore, including the Triangle Site.  These are embodied in a document called Urban Design Framework (UDF).

The vision put to the public during the UDF process was for a cultural, entertainment and recreational project with some retail. Below you can read what the Council published during the community consultation period.  This information is no longer available on the council's website. Lucky some of us kept the printouts.

Unfortunately, in the tender selected for development, culture has been interpreted as shopping, thereby turning the promise of some retail into the delivery of massive retail. What was supposed to be a 'complementary commercial development' has become the dominant activity on the site, creating a legacy of 181 retail tenancies on Crown land for the next 99 years.

Recreational activity is limited to strolling in laneways between shops or along wind swept, rooftop public grass areas and weaving between tables of diners and drinkers in the 'public' square.

Entertainment has been narrowly defined to mean large scale drinking venues and mega nightclubs, targeting a narrow age group and excluding just about everyone else.  Furthermore, the Sydney-based developer proposes big outdoor spaces allocated to pubs and other licensed venues, bringing that city's raucous drinking culture to St Kilda.   Read what people are saying about the Sydney pub culture vs. Melbourne's sophisticated bars.


What about our right of appeal?
Our loss of third party rights was tied to our trust in the City of Port Phillip and the State Government to abide by the spirit of the community consultation process.

The deal, done in secret, turns a promised landmark civic site into a multi-level commercial complex.

Read what The Age said about the process:


Community consultation?
Four out of six Councillors came to the 7 February 2008 Strategic Planning Committee meeting with prepared speeches accepting the proposal. Close to 2,000 of their citizens packed the Auditorium and the Foyer, to show their concerns. Councillors Gross, Logan, Bolitho and Mayor Cribbes listened to impassioned pleas and well-reasoned, independently substantiated arguments for reasons why they should reject - knowing full well these would fall on deaf ears. In Port Phillip that's called community consultation.


 

 


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unChain St Kilda Inc, Incorporated Association No A0051216V   unchainstkilda@gmail.com