Tuesday, 5 March 2024

 Michael O’BRIEN (Malvern) (19:09): (555) My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Planning. The action that I seek is for the minister to listen to and act on local community concerns regarding Woolworths’s development proposal for 173 Burke Road in Glen Iris. First some history. A few years ago Woolworths purchased 173 Burke Road, a site just down from Sacre Coeur, Korowa and Caulfield Grammar’s Malvern campus. It is directly opposite the Glen Iris medical centre and next to a local shopping strip. In short, it is a very busy area.

Woolworths applied to Stonnington council to develop the site into a full-line supermarket, liquor store and 85 apartments, with no affordable housing. In October 2021 council refused the permit, finding that the proposal was ‘an overdevelopment of the site’. A record 198 objections were received. At this point can I say that while some in the Labor government seek to dismiss all local objectors as NIMBYs, that is unfair when it comes to those who objected to this Woolworths proposal. In fact every objector I have spoken to acknowledges that development of the site will occur but rightly expects sensitive development not inappropriate overdevelopment. Having been refused by Stonnington council, Woolworths challenged the decision at VCAT, and there, over an arduous 12-day hearing before two experienced VCAT members, something magical happened. Do you know what happened? David defeated Goliath. Woolworths went down to committed local residents who were fighting to protect the amenity of their homes and their streets. Here is what VCAT found:

… we are not persuaded that the scale … of the proposed development achieve an outcome that respects … either the site’s activity centre or residential contexts.

…

… we are not satisfied that the traffic implications, and consequential amenity impacts, of the permit application are acceptable.

…

… we find the loss of on-street car spaces is unacceptable.

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… the development would create unacceptable visual bulk …

It was a comprehensive victory by the locals, which Woolies did not appeal. Instead they met with local residents in July last year, stating that they would submit a revised proposal to Stonnington council, but that never happened. Because contrary to Woolworth’s assurances, they have now sought to bypass residents and bypass council and gone straight to the Minister for Planning. You might have thought that after the recent Four Corners report outlining Woolworths’s questionable behaviour those executives might be seeking to rebuild community trust, but no, Woolworths has broken its commitment to my community in favour of seeking to have the Minister for Planning rubberstamp its latest plans. It makes you ask: what does Woolworths have to hide?

So I am imploring the minister to ensure that the legitimate concerns of my community and Stonnington council are heard and acted on. My local residents and small businesses do not have the deep pockets and political contacts of Woolworths, but they have a right to be heard and they have a right to protect the amenity of where they live and where they work.