The planned vision for City Street.– Melissa Meehan
PREPARATIONS are underway for delivery of a major new pedestrian and cyclist friendly street linking Dandenong Station and the transit interchange to the heart of Dandenong.
When complete, City Street will be a vibrant, active and safe link for visitors, residents, workers and students to the city centre.
The $73 million Government Services Building will be one of the first new structures to line City Street, creating more than 450 full-time employment positions during construction and nine full-time positions from ongoing facility management.
City Street’s location was announced in the November 2007 Revitalising Central Dandenong Urban Master Plan after six weeks of community consultation. It is a key component of the $290 million project to facilitate attracting $1 billion of private sector investment in central Dandenong.
Michael King, VicUrban’s development director for Revitalising Central Dandenong, said the cumulative benefits of creating City Street would be welcomed by the community.
“City Street’s alignment will make best use of the existing topography, vacant land and allow for the revitalisation of land alongside the new pedestrian-friendly street,” Mr King said.
“We consulted with thousands of locals when developing the Revitalising Central Dandenong Urban Master Plan.”
He said the new street’s location was carefully selected following consideration of important factors such as topography, vacant land, connectivity, view corridors and the assembly of land that is viable for building development alongside.
City Street will see the introduction of multi-storey buildings, contemporary architecture and wide, pedestrian-friendly spaces.
To make way for the project, and to implement the Urban Master Plan launched in November 2007, VicUrban has applied to the Minister for Planning for permission to demolish the unused Masonic Lodge. As part of the application process, letters have been sent to surrounding tenants and a public notice will be displayed on-site.
An independent report has stated that: “The principal value of the lodge is its cultural heritage associated to the Freemasons, rather than the actual building fabric … it is not a unique example of Masonic architecture and only displays aspects of typical detail”.
The Freemasons sold the property in 1990 and the building has been vacant for much of the time since. VicUrban purchased the building in 2007.
The building will be photographically recorded by VicUrban prior to any demolition works, with the images displayed in an appropriate public archive.
