The New Centre Opens in Notting Hill

On Saturday Notting Hill turned out for opening of the new Neighbour Hood Centre.
In what what marked a new beginning for Notting Hill the Governor of Victoria, his Excellency Professor David de Kretser, officially opened the Notting Hill Community House with the formal ritual of the cutting of the ribbon.


The new Neighbourhood House is in the renovated kindergarden on Westefield Drive near the shops.

Professor de Kretser and his wife Jan lived in Notting Hill during the 1980s' and their children attended the kindergarden in its early years.

At 2.30 Professor de Kretser and his wife Jan arrived to be met by Marian Quartly,our local MC.

Then Melinda Ashton, kicked off the proceedings with a welcome and speech. Followed by the Governor, More from Marian and Tom Morrisey, the Mayor of Monash City.

Then the cutting of the ribbon and the crowd joined in for sandwiches and cake.


A great day for all.

What Future for Community Voices in Planning and Development

Reader M highlighted a news article in the Age today - Council stripped of permit power : Planning Minister Madden is considering a model introduced in SA in which special panels dominated by unelected planning and design experts to determine major planning applications

Councils urged to consider cuts to planning powers
Royce Millar July 19, 2007
A leading local government figure has urged Victorian councils not to immediately reject a proposal to strip local councils of some of their planning powers.
Planning Minister Justin Madden is considering a model, introduced by the South Australian Government, under which panels dominated by unelected planning and design experts determine major planning applications.
Development groups have enthusiastically backed the idea, but some councils are adamantly opposed.
However, some senior local government figures have welcomed debate on the issue, and have urged councils not to reject the proposal outright.
Victorian Local Governance Association president Beth Davidson said councils should be prepared to consider better methods of decision-making "rather than continuing on just because that's what you've always done".
But she cautioned the Government against imposing a new system, noting the Government's vow to work with councils. "Partners collaborate, they don't impose," she said.
Cr Davidson's council, the Surf Coast Shire, has used a similar system for many years, under which local experts decide more contentious planning proposals. Planning staff decide the rest. It is the only council in Victoria that uses such a system, and it worked "extremely well", she said.
But Opposition planning spokesman Mathew Guy said Labor's consideration of the SA model represented "the beginning of the end" for community input into urban planning.
"The adoption of this planning system will give a clear run to build higher, and more densely, across existing urban areas and will have scant regard for existing urban character across Melbourne and rural and regional Victoria," he said.
It is believed the Liberal Party was considering introducing a similar system before it lost power at the 1999 state election.
Port Phillip Mayor Janet Bolitho said the Government should not be considering such a significant change before fulfilling its own promises to cut red tape.
The Government "should be putting its energies into fully implementing its own policies instead of leaping on another quick fix", she said.
"Planning can be a fraught business, but it's essential that local democracy not be undermined simply to appease sections of the property industry," Cr Bolitho said.
Brian Welch, executive director of the Master Builders Association of Victoria, said that reform of the planning system along the lines of the SA model should be the Government's priority in any bid to improve housing affordability.
Link

This was followed by the Liberal Opposition Planning Spokesman with more dire warnings

FAREWELL COMMUNITY PLANNING INPUT – HELLO HIGH RISE ACROSS THE SUBURBS

News that the Bracks Government is considering adopting a centralised model of planning approvals is the beginning of the end for community input into urban planning. Adoption of Labor’s plan would see unelected officials determining what can and can’t be built across Victoria. “The removal of planning powers from communities is what the Bracks Government has always wanted,” Shadow Minister for Planning Matthew Guy said today.
“Despite assurances to the contrary by the Premier late last year, this Government has always seen local councils and local input as the enemy in planning decisions.”
Mr Guy said that adoption of the proposed model would clear the way for high-rise residential towers across the suburbs.
“The Bracks Government has had huge problems forcing the implementation of its flawed Melbourne 2030 planning scheme which advocates high density, high-rise apartments across the suburbs.”
“The adoption of this planning system will give a clear run to build higher, and more densely, across existing urban areas and will have scant regard for existing urban character across Melbourne and rural and regional Victoria.”
“For people who have resisted high-rise or high density developments in their suburbs, they will have no say when this planning scheme is implemented.”
For rural and regional Victoria the news is worse. Not only will communities lose their chance to have a say on planning decisions, but the decisions on what will or won’t be built in towns across Victoria will be made by an unelected clique from Melbourne.
“In 1999 Steve Bracks was elected to government and claimed on election night that he’d ‘bring democracy back to Victoria’ – clearly his Government’s word means nothing as local democracy and local planning input are set to be a victim of their lies."


What’s the word from the curvy streets of Notting Hill?

Notting Hill History

Wilkinson's Bakery on the Southwest corner of Ferntree Gully Road and Blackburn Road, 1888


The Notting Hill History Project is underway. As part of the opening of the Neighbourhood Centre there will be an exhibition on the history of the estate. The items for the display are being collected with the assistance of a grant from the Local History Grants Program.

A little on our history. Originally our suburb was known as Barkers Hill, MJ Barker being an early resident in the district but was renamed when a settler by the name of Thomas Wilkinson setup camp in the area because of his association with Notting Hill in London (although this is disputed as he actually came from Lincolnshire).
He was a Cobb & Co carrier of both parcels and passengers between Prahran and Ferntree Gully and in the late 1870s his house became the Half Way House Hotel (now the Notting Hill Pub) as a source of refreshment on their journey through the area, and finally he then became postmaster at the Notting Hill Post Office.
Within our estate, there was a creek called ‘Mile Creek West’ which had two branches at the northern end crossing over Ferntree Gully Rd joining into a main section which ran south along side the primary school’s eastern boundary and
continued on. These branches of creeks came from the southern boundary within the well known ‘Thomas Napier’s Historical Scotchmans Creek Grazing Run’.
The local aboriginal tribe from our area where called ‘Boonoorong’. Research indicates that the name of one of our avenues ‘Akuna’, draws from the Koori name meaning ‘Clear Water’.
Historically, the people from Notting Hill,when gathered together, have strong voices and have paved the way in several aspects. They were heard through many channels of both Council & Education Departments.
Our estate was and is known as Westerfield and was Australia’s first completely pre-planned neighbourhood by AV Jennings in the late 1950s, and early 60’s with approximately 8 different house plans to choose from - designed to provide modern living in a complete community with a character and atmosphere of distinction.

Recent House Auction Action in Notting Hill

Recently this house on Westerfield sold at auction for $457,250 after some energetic and spirited bidding.
Apart from a free Saturday morning's entertainment what does this mean for local house values - any ideas or thoughts?

Appearing in Your Letterbox Soon - The Latest Notting Hill News

click on page to increase to full screen

Notting Hill News Part 2

Notting Hill News Part 3

Notting Hill News Part 4

In the News: Planning Backlash

High density apartment developments encroaching Notting Hill with an appetite for the school grounds next


FROM Camberwell to Moonee Ponds, normally sedate and polite people are joining a movement that could eventually mean trouble for the Bracks Government.
John Masanauskas May 07, 2007 12:00am Herald Sun

These unlikely suburban warriors are opposed to Melbourne 2030 -- a plan to fit more than one million extra people into the city over the next 20 years. Under the plan, much of the growth should occur in so-called activity centres, high-rise apartments built around transport and business hubs.
The best known proposal involves Camberwell station, mainly because of high-profile opponents Geoffrey Rush and Barry Humphries.
For members of protest group Planning Backlash, the big issue is that many developers are destroying neighbourhoods by over-developing existing residential sites.
Ann Reid, from Malvern East, said replacing single house blocks with multi-unit and dual occupancy developments was making people angry.
"There's more traffic congestion, a loss of open space, loss of trees and loss of neighbourhood character," she said. "This dogma of growth is destroying the suburbs."
Marion Quartly, from Notting Hill, said residents were concerned two public schools that were closed were being replaced by hundreds of houses.
Monash University demographer Dr Bob Birrell said building approval figures showed the Government's plan to move people into activity centre apartments wasn't working. He said the apartments were too expensive, and more than a third of dwellings now built in Melbourne comprised so-called opportunistic in-fill.
"This is where an existing house is demolished and replaced with several units or a unit is built in the backyard of an existing home. It's fundamentally changing the nature of suburbia, but in-fill is not discussed in Melbourne 2030 at all."

Read more
From BRAG

Locals Begin the Revegetation of the Wetland

On Saturday locals joined together to begin the revegetation of the wetland area in Notting Hill. With the help of Monash University ground staff who prepared the ground native plants were put in to create a new bushland areas around the small dam.
More planting will occur as we raise further funds to pay for more plants.





And a little clean up of the rubbish in the area too. Old thongs and plastic anyone?

Followed by coffee and scones all round

The Telstra Empire Colonises Notting Hill - Offices for 4000 over the Back Fence

Telstra announced their plans today for their site at 770 Blackburn Rd, the former Telstra Research Labs. This joins onto the Notting Hill housing area.

Quoting from their media release - link

"Telstra will build a large 40,000 square metre office complex in Clayton, Victoria."
The new flagship development, to be completed by late 2009, will accommodate around 4,000 Telstra employees in four low-rise buildings ranging from two to six storeys."
Leading property Developer Salta Constructions will undertake the construction which will also feature an additional 2,000 square metres of retail facilities comprising a mini-market, newsagent and cafes."
"Site work is expected to commence in early 2008 and will involve the demolition of the existing vacant buildings"

In Notty the response is mixed – more people in the area but the traffic; the lack of open space and parking point to failures in planning that are being compounded by school closures.

L wrote:
The South Eastern employees scattered over the suburbs and outer CBD will all be relocated to this site. If we thought the traffic was bad around here now, just wait until this place opens ... and where are all the cars going to park as most of the site will be office/retail buildings? The price of apartments might rise if people want to live and work in the same suburb? Who knows ... all the more reason to press on for some open spaces and greenery, bike paths etc as we're going to bear some of the pressure of all the extra human and vehicular traffic.

D wrote:
If even just 5% of Telstra's 4000+ staff brought their children to a local school that's 200 or more kids. Imagine if there was a good primary school just off the Telstra/University sites [perhaps, the former Monash Primary School :)], which then fed into the Monash Uni Science and Technology Secondary school, or one of the local Sec. schools such as Mt. Waverley or Glen Waverley ... and what about childcare facilites close by?? What is the State Govt/Monash Council going to do about providing all the extra services that will be needed by the influx of Telstra employees?


This is a B3 Zone and for the site (770 Blackburn Rd) there is a 28,000 square meter limit for leasable office space above which a planning permit would be needed
--- thus expect to see a planning application notice .. should be detail available when that happens.

D2 wrote:
Parking ... my reading of 52.06 (can't find anything that overrides it in the B3 zone) required 3.5 cars per 100 square meters of floor for an office. ie 40000/100 * 3.5 = 1400 car parks ... given my past life at that site I'd say there will be a few extra people looking to park cars (Expect 1 person per 10square meters of floor area and nearly 1 car per 2 persons at best) --- ie 4000 people (as stated in the announcement) so 2000+ cars. Not sure where they will go let alone get in and out of the site. When TRL was there at its peak there were only about 600 people.

L2:
the more reason to press on for some open spaces and greenery, bike paths
etc as we're going to bear some of the pressure of all the extra human and
vehicular traffic.

- AND SCHOOLS!!!!! surely some of those people will want easy access to a
primary school, as was the case with the now-closed primary school.

The Greening of Notting Hill Begins

ALL WELCOME
Tree Planting - This Saturday (Sat 2 June)

This is a reminder that the Tree Planting Day is happening this Saturday 2 June between 10:00am and 12:00noon on the vacant land between the open stormwater drain and the Melbourne Cricket Centre on Duredin Street.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME along with your shovels and spades!
So please join us in greening up our suburb.

Courses to be offered at the Notting Hill Neighbiourhood House

The Mulgrave House people have kindly put up the coming timetable of courses that will be available the Neighourhood House after it opens in July.
The list can be viewed here

For further updates check links on the side.

News from Notting Hill - May

It is a busy time in the suburb

Survey and Petition

Doorknockers are visiting every house seeking signatures for our petition on the school closures and sell off of the land. At the same time they will be conducting a survey of households to find out how many school age children there really are in the suburb – and whether this fits with what the Education department claims.

This information may be matched with the census data due out soon to give an accurate picture of who lives in Notting Hill and from this what their needs are. The reason for the survey is a strong suspicion that the data used for making decision about schools and other services is extremely out of date and probably inaccurate or deliberately misrepresented to justify Government decisions. Recently we sought information from the Education Department under Freedom of Information on the basis for their decision making. The result was pretty paltry and does not give us any confidence in the quality or relevance of data used.

Liveability Coalition
Planning is continuing for the big meeting planned now for late July or August. More local community groups are joining to together to increase the awareness of the threats to liveability in the City of Monash by inappropriate, ill-conceived development and the apparent inability of the State Government and impotent local councils to admit that their planning measures are missing the target. Link

Native Vegetation Repair
The work on restoring native vegetation is proceeding quickly with the help of the grounds staff from Monash University. A working day will be held in early June to plant trees and other plants in the wetlands area owned by the University along the gully or former creek.
Donations have provided the seedlings and some of the tools while Monash staff is preparing the ground for planting.

The Neighbour House
Work is proceeding to open the Neighbourhood House – where the kindergarten used to be in Westerfield near the shops – in July. See previous post. Link
Computers have been donated from Monash University and furniture and chairs have been sourced and are now in storage awaiting the opening. The Monash Council is to carry out renovations.

Community Garden Proposal
The community garden proposal continues. The Monash Council has provided some in principle support for a community garden and suggested a block for a community garden. Unfortunately this block is not viable. The block of land suggested is at the back or rear of the Pinewood nursery on Blackburn Road opposite the Pinewood Shopping Centre.
This is too far away for Notting Hill residents. The garden should be within walking distance of people’s residences.
It is several kilometres away and across two major arterial roads and a motorway. Thanks but no thanks.

We are asking for something more appropriate and able to be easily used and enjoyed by Notting Hill community gardeners. I plan to letterbox all gardeners and organise a meeting in the new Neighbourhood House.

Debate over Public Inquiry in Public Land Sales and Where Dogs Don't Bite

It was with these words that politician, Matthew Guy a member of Victoria Legislative Council opened debate on setting up the inquiry into public land for development (Permanent link on the left)

"We are in the first decade of a new century and already it is clear that communities and Victorians are becoming more and more concerned with the naturaland built environments that surround us.
Victorians are taking a keener interest in the form and style of our city that is our capital, and the character of the country and regional towns that make up our great state.
Importantly Victorians are taking a much more proactive interest in the character of the neighbourhoods in which they live and in the preservation of the existing public open space in those cities and towns.
But since the turn of the century it is clear that public open space has come under attack. It has become a commodity to sell or develop, rather than to preserve.
As land prices have risen dramatically across the city over the last few years, principally near central activities areas, and moreover due to the establishment of a rigid urban growth boundary, the state government appears to have become a land speculator with its public land holdings.
Unfortunately public open space has become more of a line item in the Department of Treasury and Finance’s Excel spreadsheets first and a public, economic and social asset second.
This motion has been put forward for debate today to establish this select committee in the hope that this chamber will view this issue with exceptional importance, because once open space is lost, as we all know, it cannot be replaced.
Further, it is clear that the Bracks government is disposing public land across the state in order to get a quick financial gain with little or no regard to the open space that is being lost forever".

Notting Hill had a mention during the debate too.
Some of it here:

"Another example I would like to draw to the house’s attention is the suburb of Notting Hill. It was Australia’s first preplanned neighbourhood, if you like, the first estate built by renowned builder AVJennings.
It is a quiet, peaceful suburb with kids, families and people kicking the footy in the street.
It is a place where the dogs do not bite.
It is a place where people can live what many of us would regard as the great Australian dream, with a house on a block of land in the suburbs, where the neighbours are all still friendly to each other.
However, Notting Hill is under siege, as residents know. In the last four years they have lost their day care centre, their kindergarten, their primary school and their secondary school.
Unfortunately when AVJennings built the estate it ran out of money, and the public land in the middle of the estate that was set aside to be a park never eventuated.
As I stated, both the primary and secondary schools recently closed. It was those two schools that the community used as public open space. Realising that they were under siege, members of the community rallied together.
They went to the local council and presented a plan for part of the site of the now closed secondary school to be used as public open space, because their suburb does not have any left.
The council went to the government and was told that this was not a problem, so long as the council paid market rates for the land.
This was a wild and ridiculous suggestion, as the government knew no council could
possibly afford to do so. Why would the government not want these two school sites sold to the highest bidder?
It is because, irrespective of the fact that no open space now exists in this small suburb, according to the Melbourne 2030 document the land on which the two schools are located is right in the middle of the Monash University health research precinct.
So it is not just an average surplus-to-government-requirements school sale anymore. It is a couple of plots of public land that are now worth millions upon millions of dollars more than they would be if they were schools stuck out in the suburbs somewhere else.
Land on the edge of Notting Hill is already being sold for high-rise student accommodation. Right next to the old secondary school is land that is being sold to have new office blocks of four or five storeys. So the sale of the high school by this government, so pious about its record in education, is because the government has seen the flashing dollar sign first.
Like Kew Cottages, there is more to this story than meets the eye. I am informed by the residents that the school closed on 22 December last year for good.
By the end of January 2007 it was already deemed surplus to government requirements. It was not even a month later. This means that the Department of Education (DOE) had written to all other government departments and offered the land to them. After receiving replies it had then gone to all other schools in the area and offered it to them and got replies back.
This was all done over the Christmas period. Then it declared the school surplus.
Are we seriously expected to believe that the process to declare this school surplus was
conducted by DOE over the Christmas period, that it contacted all involved and it was done inthe proper way?
There is more about Notting Hill that we need to know about. A German school was approached and it became interested in establishing what is called a co-host school similar to, I am informed, one in Caroline Springs at the old primary school site. Surprisingly, the Department of
Education refused to meet or talk to that school.
When the Germans left a Chinese group came in. The department refused to talk to that group as well.
We are talking about a school site a couple of kilometres away from Clayton and Springvale where those communities have large numbers.
We should not be surprised. As I mentioned earlier, it is becoming clearer to all of us that DOE does not want to talk to any of these people because the monetary value of these sites is more important than the actual use of the school.
I should inform the house at this point that the Notting Hill residents association contacted their local MP, Hong Lim, the member for Clayton in the other place.
The association never received a reply and it did not contact him once but multiple times. It also sent over 130 letters to the then Minister for Education and Training, Lynne Kosky, now the Minister for Public Education.
Ms Kosky appeared to have the same attitude in education as she does in transport because
she did not want to hear about its letters; more than 130 letters were sent to her but she did not reply to a single one.
So Notting Hill is set to be a small suburb with no schools, no shops and now no public open space. The public land has been entirely sold off for development over the last few years because the state government is obsessed with being a land speculator first. It is a suburb that will now have all the hallmarks of Melbourne 2030 — what the minister and this government want — with hundreds of additional people living in the suburb but with vastly reduced open space".


Full debate available at:
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/council/publicland/Proof%20Hansard.pdf

Inquiry Launched into Sale of Public Land for Development

From the Age newspaper
Inquiry launched into sale of public land for development

David Rood and Royce Millar May 3, 2007

MELBOURNE'S controversial 2030 planning policy will come under scrutiny following the establishment of an inquiry into the Government's sale of public land for development.
Flexing their muscle in the Victorian upper house, the Opposition parties established the potentially embarrassing inquiry yesterday.
The inquiry, initiated by the Liberals, will investigate the sale and development of public land and the relationship to Melbourne's 2030 planning policy and Green Wedges.

More at link
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/05/02/1177788225256.html


Details of the Committee are now available at:
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/council/publicland/

Terms of Reference for the Inquiry are at:
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/council/publicland/tor.html

A Little Gardening Inspiration

Link

http://kenalovell.com/blog/2007/04/11/vegeprivation/

Liveability Meeting Coming

$75 Million To Plan An Even More Liveable Victoria

WHAT DO YOU THINK ?

From Our State Government - Budget Time Propaganda

From the MINISTER FOR PLANNING
Projects to rejuvenate major suburban centres and meet the challenges of population growth are the focus of a $75 million plan to keep Victoria a great place to live, work and raise a family.
Planning Minister Justin Madden said the 2007-08 State Budget delivered on the Bracks Government’s commitment to meet the challenge of planning for a growing population.
“Since 1999, the Government has legislated to protect Melbourne’s precious Green Wedges, direct housing to where new communities can access schools, shops and transport, and streamlined planning processes,” he said.
“We made a commitment to help councils implement the Melbourne 2030 blueprint to manage growth over the next 30 years. “We also promised to give local government the tools and expertise needed to update and strengthen local planning schemes so that communities, developers and councils have greater certainty about what is allowed.
“Today we are delivering on those promises, with funding to facilitate investment, boost local economies, create jobs and make Victoria an even more attractive place to raise a family.”

There is more - it goes on and on
go to
http://www.budget.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/Budgets/budget07.nsf/d6e571e551bef80eca2572bb002bcea7/4463a6eef077dcb2ca2572cd0037908f!OpenDocument

What do people think

The Notty Blogger is back

I have been overseas in Hong Kong and China in past weeks but I return with a new sense of wonder at the how the human species is taking over urban spaces. You might call it the Hong Kong 3D urban dystopic withdrawal.

Back in suburbia it is different - even safe - or is it? Confessions of Ballard fan.

"The system is self-regulating. It relies on our sense of civic responsibility. Without that, society would collapse. In fact, the collapse may even have begun.” J.G. Ballard. Millennium People (2003; p. 104).

A Ballardian view of recent events in the suburbs of Melbourne

LINK

http://www.ballardian.com/the-rats-that-ate-mill-park/