By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
A GLUT of applications for multi-storey apartments in central Dandenong are sitting untouched in the state planning minister’s permit application register.
But many of the applications may be news to nearby residents — there are no public notice periods, nor third party objection and appeal rights for planning applications in the city’s CBD.
Planning Minister Matthew Guy has the final say on planning applications for central Dandenong, in weekly consultation with the council and Places Victoria. Objections can only be lodged if the application is inconsistent with the Central Dandenong development plan.
Inspection of the register shows nine applications awaiting allocation to a state department planner, including a plan for five-storey apartments at 5 Stud Road, received on June 14.
Four of them have been received within the past 60 days — the statutory deadline for the assessment of applications. The other six have been awaiting allocation for between two and five months.
Greater Dandenong chief executive officer John Bennie said he would like to see “the economic wheel turn faster” with private residential and commercial property investment in the precinct. Mr Bennie said about $1 billion of private property investment was expected during the 20-year central Dandenong project. This complemented $450 million from government coffers.
“There’s a lot of developments waiting for demand to increase but we expect it will take off.”
Places Victoria chief executive Sam Sangster said private investment — at $330 million in the first seven years of the project — was on track.
Greater Dandenong city planning director Jody Bosman said it could be expected that Dandenong’s CBD would be transformed into a mass of five-storey buildings, with some towers reaching higher.
STUCK ON THE WAITING LIST
CENTRAL Dandenong projects awaiting allocation on the planning minister’s application register include:
■ 11 King Street: five-storey apartment block.
■ 72-82 Cheltenham Road: 35 triple-storey townhouses.
■ 69 McRae Street: 34 four-storey apartments.
■ 5 Stud Road: five-storey apartment block.
City could lose a bit of history
THREE 90-year-old cottages at 44-48 Scott Street, Dandenong, could make way for 80 dwellings and a cafe.
Since August, the application has been “awaiting allocation” on the planning minister’s planning application register.
The attractive row of circa 1923-24 cottages are not protected by a heritage overlay, former Dandenong Historical Society president Carmen Powell said. “When the council did a historical study of the area, they didn’t think they were significant enough to be protected.”
She said it would be a shame to lose the cottages but she personally liked “the changes” in the Dandenong revitalisation project. “It’s exciting. I love the main street, with all the plantings. Some of the old people were devastated when the gum trees went. But I’m not against change.”
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