Council Meeting 20th December Update - Great News
Our Council says ‘NO’
The City Of Yarra town planning has refused 26-56 Queens Parade on multiple grounds. The grounds for refusal include height, scale, massing, on-site and off-site amenity, environment, sustainable development, and orderly planning.
This refusal means the Council and residents are officially shoulder to shoulder, side by side in opposition to this proposal at VCAT.
Thanks once again to the people behind the 480 objections submitted and thanks also to the Council Officers for wading through them all, plus the expert reports, to reach this decision.
DDO On Schedule
In answer to a question on the DDO’s progress, Mr Phillips assured the meeting the DDO is on track to be ready for consideration at the next Council Meeting on 7th February, which is excellent progress by our town planning team.
Protect North Fitzroy is now an Inc
Protect North Fitzroy, after losing the “Skyline” was feeling a bit incomplete, so we all got together and became incorporated. Now Protect Fitzroy North has letters after its name, we are now officially Protect Fitzroy North Inc.
Protect Fitzroy North Inc. has incorporated following the standard model. A complete set of office bearers has been elected. Our first AGM will happen next year. We are not going away. The first order of business will be preparing a compelling case for refusal of the 26-56 Queens Parade application before VCAT in April. We will be asking the community for support and to be part of the action, starting in the new year.
Last and definitely least
You may have noticed our original "artistic impression" at the top of the page has changed. The previous image has been removed at the demand of lawyers representing the current developer of 26-56 Queens Parade, and replaced with one, even his lawyers, could not claim was a physical representation of his planned monolith. The image is not the cause, so the image was replaced.
Lawyers for the developer sent a letter to Glen, our newly elected PFN President, demanding that he remove the “Just Too Big” image from all PFN sites and social media by 4pm on 28 December, and to stop “procuring” others to display this image. He considers our image to be “grossly misleading” and has now provided his own image - shown below.
The developer's image below, is the first one showing the development from the north, he has supplied to residents.
The photographer hired by the developer used a 20mm lens for the supplied photo, Glen's original was done with a phone camera using point and click.
Mr Gurner could have saved a lot of money, and got the images removed faster, if he just asked, in line with his stated position that “he remains fully committed to working with stakeholders, in particular local residents."
One final thought
The fight is still a long, long way from over, but it seems an appropriate moment to express our thanks for your support so far. Make no mistake, we will need you more than ever in 2017, but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy a safe and happy festive season.