By Casey Neill
Dandenong residents have won a four-year battle to save their streets from becoming “slums”.
Planning Minister Richard Wynne announced on Wednesday 22 November that he’d approved Dandenong Planning Scheme Amendment C182.
“This is huge for the people of Dandy,” key campaigner Silvia Mastrogiovanni said.
“We are looking forward to seeing the fine print and hope there are no surprises.”
With neighbour Carmel Puglisi she founded the Dandenong Community Association to advocate for change.
They’d seen too many cramped apartments cropping up in streets surrounding their homes with next to no open space for the people who lived in them.
“We started this for Dandy,” she said.
“The smaller the spaces became for people to live in, the more you could see this place becoming a place where people didn’t want to stay and live, they would just be stuck here until they could get somewhere better.
“It would become a transient slum.”
The amendment is now part of the planning scheme, which set the requirements for developments.
Mr Wynne said the changes would concentrate new housing growth into areas best suited to cater for more people.
Building heights will be capped at eight metres in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone and there’ll be new setback, landscape and open space requirements.
In August last year, the Journal reported that Greater Dandenong Council had sent the amendment to Mr Wynne for final approval.
More than 620 submissions informed the document, most expressing concern about unit blocks in streets that were predominantly home to single-storey dwellings.
The amendment the council approved rezoned some areas pegged for growth to the lower-density General Residential Zone to protect them from high-density development.
It also required townhouses in the General Residential Zone – which makes up 70 per cent of the municipality – to double the minimum ground level open space to 50 square metres.
“This will mean better quality living for those who live in such townhouses, but also a better experience for neighbours in terms of visual bulk and parking impacts,” councillor Matthew Kirwan said.
Ms Mastrogiovanni said the changes were 10 years overdue.
“It’s for the good of the town, and the future of the town, and the future of those that are living in it,” she said.
“We have fair play. We have justice for people.
“People get a decent space to live in, and don’t get exploited.
“It’s a win for the little people.”
