By CASEY NEILL
DANDENONG residents last week slammed council inaction on restricting multi-storey units at a community forum.
But City of Greater Dandenong councillor Matthew Kirwan said help is on its way.
Even sweltering conditions didn’t deter up to 90 people from attending a ‘meet your local councillors’ forum at Dandenong Library on Tuesday 14 January.
Mayor Jim Memeti chaired the meeting alongside councillors Kirwan, Angela Long and Roz Blades.
Richard Kenny, a Dandenong resident and ratepayer of nearly 40 years, said the overall tone was one of “widespread community dissatisfaction with our council”.
Mr Kenny said most attendees were concerned with “the council’s apparent inability to control multi-unit developments on what were single residential blocks”.
“There is a community feeling that Dandenong is to be treated as a lower class, low-rent suburb,” he said.
“There seems to be an unwillingness to accept the future social impacts of multi storey, multi-unit developments.
“There appears to be a complete disconnect between the Planning Department and the council.
“It feels like the tail wagging the dog.
“And in my view there will be a fair bit of duck-shoving, with a lot of blame – rightly or not – being apportioned to the State Government and VCAT.”
Mr Kenny said people also spoke out about a lack of business start-ups, a lack of parking in central Dandenong and poor accessibility to shops in central Dandenong, particularly Lonsdale Street.
Silvia Mastrogiovanni, who lives in Dandenong, said it was obvious from the turnout that the people of Greater Dandenong were passionate about their city.
“The community, young and old, attended on very short notice and on a stinker of a day – 43 degrees.”
Dandenong resident Melinda, who asked that her surname not be printed, said the attendance showed the level of resident concern about planning.
“This is particularly so for residents in the Residential Growth Zone, where there is now a possibility of increased building heights of up to four storeys,” she said.
“VCAT appeal rights are not worth the paper they are written on if the City of Greater Dandenong Planning Scheme allows for these developments in the planning controls.
“Our planning scheme needs to change and our council has the power to do this.”
Cr Kirwan said the council had received this message.
“There was also a strong message that the council needed to do more to encourage apartment growth in the very centre of Dandenong where they felt it was more appropriate, rather than in residential streets which they wanted to preserve for families,” he said.
He said councillors would work with council officers on the issue.
“And in mid-2014 we anticipate being able to go out to community consultation to seek the community’s views on refining the growth zone areas – not just in Dandenong but in Noble Park and Springvale as well,” he said.
“This may mean having ‘sub-areas’ within the growth zone, or perhaps changing zone boundaries or other types of planning controls.”
