Thursday, 20 February 2025

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (17:29): (1029) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Planning, and the action that I seek is for the minister to urgently intervene to stop Pace Development from overturning VCAT’s decision on the Woolworths site in Elsternwick. Since 2018 residents have endured two extensive VCAT hearings spanning some 34 days. In the most recent hearings VCAT issued a permit with conditions, which were accepted by Pace Development. Residents of Glen Eira council also accepted that, even though some of the conditions were not ideal for some of the residents, who have been fighting against this development since 2018. Now we hear the developer wants to overturn VCAT’s decision. The question really is: why have VCAT if in fact the developer has the ability to overcome that?

Some of the issues that they are attempting to overcome include increasing the number of apartments from 134 to 148; increasing the number of floors from three, which would add four storeys to the southern tower and an extra storey to the northern tower; increasing the number of living areas in the southern tower from nought to 13, which would impact the residential amenity of homes located in the nearby streets; and adding a right-hand turn from the supermarket car park, which would send 2500 cars per day through the planned Jewish cultural precinct, which was to close this off and to create a neighbourhood amenity, and that is at risk from these changes. It would also impact community safety by sending trucks through local suburban streets, like Sinclair Street, during the demolition and construction. The proposed changes fundamentally alter the conditions imposed by VCAT, which were designed to protect the local community’s interests. Elsternwick residents will certainly learn their fate within weeks, and the minister’s urgent intervention is required.

Residents have endured so much in this area. We are all for appropriate development, but overdevelopment is absolutely not on, and Elsternwick is jam-packed with towers and overdevelopment. This particular community have really gone through far too much stress. They have had two lots of VCAT hearings. Enough is enough here, and I think it is time for the minister to intervene to ensure that she stands with residents to make the developer stop trying to overreach in a situation where the jury has been heard and VCAT’s decision has been heard. Ultimately, why are we overturning a decision that VCAT has ruled on twice? So I urgently call on the Minister for Planning to overturn this decision and ensure the residents of Elsternwick and their best interests are heard.