By Casey Neill
A proposal for five units on an Eden Court block would have caused “chaos” in the Noble Park cul-de-sac, says Councillor Roz Blades.
Her Greater Dandenong Council colleagues, with the exception of Cr Sean O’Reilly, supported her motion to refuse the application at their Monday 27 November meeting.
A report from officers recommended approving the development, which included three double-storey and two single-storey homes.
The council received six objections to the application, relating to flood and drainage issues in the surrounding streets; overshadowing and overlooking adjoining properties; proposed walls on boundaries; and parking and traffic congestion.
Cr Blades said the proposal did not include a sufficient front setback, was an overdevelopment of the site and would cause “inappropriate car parking outcomes”.
“I went into Eden Court on the weekend. It’s a small court that runs off Chandler Road,” she said.
“It’s not a large court. It’s very difficult to get around.
“It’s a difficult court to park in.”
She said the units would affect residential amenity and “parking in that court will be a complete and total fiasco”.
“This court cannot sustain this development,” she said.
“You can’t make the court any bigger. You can’t make the court any wider.
“Residents will not be able to park in there.”
Cr Matthew Kirwan supported Cr Blades’ motion “purely related to drainage”.
“I don’t think this is an overdevelopment of the site,” he said.
“My understanding is engineering services doing more work in the area.
“Until mitigation work is completed, putting this development on the site wouldn’t be appropriate.”
But Cr O’Reilly said his understanding was that this application could positively affect stormwater drainage in the area.
City planning, design and amenity director Jody Bosman said officers had determined changes to the design to ensure “no off-site impact”.
Cr O’Reilly said: “The situation will absolutely be improved by this.”
He said that five units on more than 1500 square metres was not an overdevelopment and the application met all the minimum parking requirements – unlike others passed earlier in the meeting.
“I’m really finding it difficult to find the logic in some of the decision-making,” he said.
“We will no doubt see another application in six to 12 months that will be twice the density of this.
“It does not make sense to me to block this application.”
