Posts related to 'urban planning'

Planning within Maroondah

Published by Alex Makin on Thursday 28th of August, 2008

Planning is one of the more vexing issues in being a local Councillor. It is important to ensure a high standard of planning while also protecting our municipality from inappropriate development.

Whether an objector or applicant it is important to understand the planning process so that we can achieve outcomes that result in creating a better Maroondah. Planning in Maroondah is guided by the Maroondah Planning Scheme, which in turn is affected by the Victorian State Planning Provisions. The Planning Scheme defines the type of development or uses that require a planning permit.

The planning process formally begins with the advertising of a planning permit. It is during this time that people can view the lodged plans and potentially object to the application. There are a number of factors that are taken into account when considering a planning permit, one of those being Maroondah’s Neighbourhood Character Study. The Neighbourhood Character Study divides the residential parts of Maroondah into 23 areas based on their defining urban characteristics. Details on the Maroondah Neighbour hood Character Study are available from www.maroondah.vic.gov.au/NeighbourhoodCharacter.aspx

The planning process allows the opportunity to improve community infrastructure and assist in creating a more sustainable and accessible municipality . As an example, any permits within the Ringwood Transit City, require the construction of footpaths to ensure that council is able to encourage walking and sustainable transport. This also helps achieve a more accessible municipality for people with disabilities and walking aids. Furthermore I have been able to request a number of sustainability improvements, such as rainwater tanks and energy improvements as part of a planning application.

It is important that the community is offered the opportunity to provide input when council considers a planning application. To ensure that community views are taken into account I will often call planning consultative meetings. These meetings, which include objectors as well as the applicant, provide an opportunity to reinforce concerns and to see if any of the issues raised can be addressed.

While planning can unfortunately be somewhat adversarial in nature, planning consultative meetings help reduce this potential conflict by seeing whether a community supported outcome is possible. This approach ensures a higher standard of development within Maroondah while also preventing inappropriate development.

Please contact me on 0408 311 645 or email alex.makin@maroondah.vic.gov.au if there are any planning issues you would like to discuss.

Eastern Transport Coalition Public Transport Summit

Published by Alex Makin on Friday 4th of July, 2008

The Eastern Transport Coalition represents one million residents across the seven eastern metropolitan councils within Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

Today’s summit highlighted the need for public transport improvements within the eastern suburbs to become sustainable and accessible through providing transport choice for residents facing worsening traffic congestion and rising petrol prices. The theme includes the infrastructure needs of the region and included presentations on the need for new rail lines serving Rowville and Doncaster, as well as required improvements to the Belgrave and Lilydale rail lines.

The keynote speakers, Professors Peter Newman and Graham Currie, spoke about the importance of public transport in reducing greenhouse emissions and mitigating the effects of rising petrol prices. Both speakers reiterated the trend of rising petrol prices and demonstrated quite clearly that such increases were only going to continue.

While the Premier was unable to attend, Rob Hudson, the Parliamentary Secretary for Public Transport, stated that the Government would release a new transport plan by the end of the year. While the State Government released Meeting Our Transport Challenges in 2006, the plan was widely condemned as being inadequate and failed to plan for any infrastructure improvements in the eastern suburbs. It is hoped that the government’s next plan will rectify these shortcomings.

The Opposition Leader, Ted Baillieu, spoke about the government’s litany of public transport plans and the increasing cost of inaction. While the opposition leader did not make any commitments, he did highlight the need for rail lines to Doncaster and Rowville.

The summit was extremely well attended by community members, as well as local councillors, State MPs and members of local environment and transport groups. Time was provided to allow attendees to discuss the needs of the eastern region and during this time the need for accessibility improvements on public transport was mentioned.

I spoke on the needs of the Belgrave/Lilydale lines and Ringwood with Cr. Samantha Dunn from the Shire of Yarra Ranges, who spoke about the need for rail duplications to improve the reliability of the line.

My presentation focused on the need for rail improvements between Box Hill and Ringwood and the importance of Ringwood as a regional centre within the eastern region. The expectations of eastern Melbourne and its 1 million residents were conveyed at this summit. The State Government must act and deliver the much needed public transport infrastructure, including the redevelopment of Ringwood Station, that is urgently required for the region

Please continue reading to view a copy of the speech I delivered at the summit.

(Read more…)

Melbourne 2030 Reference Group

Published by Alex Makin on Thursday 14th of February, 2008

Thursday, 21 February 2008
10:00 am	to	12:00 pm
Thursday, 24 April 2008
10:00 am	to	12:00 pm
Thursday, 12 June 2008
10:00 am	to	12:00 pm
Thursday, 21 August 2008
10:00 am	to	12:00 pm
Thursday, 30 October 2008
10:00 am	to	12:00 pm
Thursday, 11 December 2008
10:00 am	to	12:00 pm

The Melbourne 2030 Reference Group provides a forum for councils to discuss the State Government’s Melbourne 2030 planning policy and its ramifications for local government. The group has focused on activity centre development, public transport and sustainability to ensure that local councils are empowered and supported by the State Government in the aim of creating sustainable communities.

Ultimately the State Government must lead by example and implement its own planning policies. Ringwood, where Maroondah Council has been advocating for an upgrade of Ringwood Station, is an example of where State Government commitment is required to ensure the creation of a vibrant and sustainable urban community. While Maroondah has been strengthening its planning schemes to encourage sustainable urban design, these efforts will be difficult without a newly redeveloped Ringwood Station or a stronger statewide emphasis on accessible and sustainable urban design.

The Melbourne 2030 Reference Group provides an avenue to discuss these concerns and to seek improvements into the implementation of Melbourne 2030. I have been Maroondah’s delegated representative to this committee since being elected in November 2005.

Final Heatherdale Communtiy Action Group meeting for 2007

Published by Alex Makin on Wednesday 12th of December, 2007

Tonight I attended the final Heatherdale Community Action Group meeting for 2007. Tonight’s meeting provided an opportunity to reflect on the amenity issues being experienced along Heatherdale Road and council’s response, such as two successful prosecutions against Southern Rocycling, to try and improve this situation.

While the primary focus of the Heatherdale Community Action Group is the amenity of Heatherdale, a locality which is divided between the Cities of Maroondah and Whitehorse, speakers are regularly invited to provide to discuss issues of interest to the membership.

Tonight’s meeting included a presentation from St. John Ambulance who discussed the role of the not-for-profit organisation and the steps involved in delivering first aid. The speaker presented the DR ABC action plan, which involves the following steps:

• Danger - checking for danger to yourself and others
• Respond - is the person responsive?
• Airway - clearing the airway
• Breathing - look for signs that the person is breathing
• Circulation - check breathing and pulse to determine if resuscitation is required

The discussion with St. John Ambulance, was one of the many presentations delivered over the course of the year at the meetings. Meetings for the Heatherdale Community Action Group will resume in February 2008.

Presentation on urban sustainability and transport

Published by Alex Makin on Monday 13th of August, 2007

This afternoon I was invited to deliver a presentation exploring the linkages between urban sustainability and public transport to the 41st Annual Geography Conference organised by the Geography Teachers Association of Victoria (GTAV).

The hour-long presentation provided a synopsis on the economic, social and environmental benefits of public transport, investigated current urban policies and examined Ringwood as a case study to demonstrate the interdependence between urban sustainability and public transport.

While the State Government appears to have neglected its goal of increasing public transport modal share to 20% by the year 2020, this target is required to mitigate rising congestion. With an annual cost of $4 billion annually, congestion is currently outpacing Melbourne’s population growth. Likewise the provision of public transport will provide transport choice to the many outer suburban households that are struggling due to rising petrol prices and the fact that private transport consumes up to 20% of budgets within these households.

The lack of public transport in Melbourne’s outer suburbs can also place non-car households at a significant disadvantage and limit the ability to participate in employment, educational, community and recreational opportunities. Similarly, obesity and health issues such as diabetes, can be symptomatic of car dependent suburbs where the potential to exercise is diminished.

In regard to environmental sustainability, transport accounts for 17% of Australia’s national greenhouse emissions and is the fastest growing sector of emissions. The figures are even more stark for individual households, where due to car dependence, transport is responsible for up to 49% of greenhouse emissions and is the largest contributing source of emissions within households.

These and other costs mean that car dependence is not sustainable and that urban sustainability cannot be achieved under current practices. While it may be claimed that excessive car usage contributes to the economy, when equating the economic, social and environmental impacts of car dependence there is an annual deficit of $16.3 billion.

Melbourne 2030, the State Government’s urban planning strategy was supposed to achieve a more sustainable future for Melbourne. While the plan identified numerous activity centres, each of which are earmarked for urban development, the public transport network that was supposed to cater to these urban centres remains underdeveloped.

This is even more apparent in the purpose-built activity centres that were initially designed to showcase the integration that was to result between transport and planning. Activity centres such as South Morang, Cranbourne East and Wyndham Vale have been denied much needed rail extensions despite their location within the rapidly developing growth corridors.

The problems experienced with Melbourne’s public transport system, such as unreliable train services, infrequent and poorly connected bus services and trams that terminate short of logical destinations can be resolved, but it requires Government will. Within Australia, Perth has proven to be an example of the improvements that can result from an integration between transport and planning and a commitment to urban sustainability. As an example, Perth recently doubled the size of its rail network, including the construction of a new 70km rail line (twice the distance of the CBD to Dandenong) and new stations are built simultaneously with urban development.

The integration that has borne results in Perth needs to be implemented in Melbourne, particularly for designated transit cities such as Ringwood. The suburb of Ringwood, located 27km east of Melbourne’s CBD, has been designated an area of higher density development but the State Government has been lacklustre in its commitment to improving public transport.

Ringwood currently suffers due to a disjointed retail precinct and transport hub which requires pedestrians to cross a six lane highway. Despite the goals of creating a sustainable community, the State Government and VicRoads have currently refused requests to make it easier to cross Maroondah Highway. Coupled with poor public transport, which includes making public transport users wait up to half an hour to travel between Ringwood and Croydon, the current culture of car dependence is exacerbated and potentially jeopardises the ability to create green open space and a new heart for Ringwood. Furthermore the lack of commitment over the redevelopment of Ringwood Station has created uncertainty for major developers resulting in unnecessary delays.

Each of these issues are interrelated, since due to poor public transport there is less open space which creates a pedestrian hostile environment and investment delays as developers wait for these issues to be rectified. While 40% of land in Melbourne used for roads and carparks, a staggering 62% of land within Ringwood is used for these purposes, leaving less land available for residential, commercial and community purposes.

While new developments, such as three storey residential buildings, are occurring the investment in public transport and hence the investor confidence in larger commercial developments is not. In particular, while residents within these new developments are encouraged to use public transport, walking and cycling as a form of travel this will not be sustainable if public transport is not improved.

Poor public transport connectivity and a lack of frequent bus services along main roads, such as Maroondah Highway, Canterbury and Wonga Roads, means that public transport usage will remain limited due to the fact that these poor levels of service fail to provide a real transport choice. The State Government must deliver significant public transport improvements to demonstrate that it is committed to creating a sustainable community within Ringwood.

The provision of sustainable transport is a key component of creating a sustainable community and increasing economic, social and environmental pressures means that action is required.

• Presentation on urban sustainability and transport delivered at the 2007 GTAV Conference