Plans in the report show areas bordered by Clayton, Carinish, Centre and Wellington roads have now been earmarked for buildings up to six storeys high. Under existing rules, buildings in these pockets are capped at two storeys.
At Tuesday’s meeting, councillors voted unanimously to endorse a plan to increase the permitted building heights in those areas to six storeys.
The Suburban Rail Loop Authority has already seized planning controls over large parts of the precincts and will rezone them to allow higher and more dense development, including buildings of up to 20 storeys in parts of Clayton.
But the council report warned that SRL had provided nothing to indicate what upgrades to municipal facilities and infrastructure would be required, how funding for these upgrades would be sourced, or who would pay.
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“I’m very concerned,” said Monash councillor Theo Zographos, who has been nominated as the Liberal candidate for the federal seat of Chisholm.
“The government doesn’t want people to know, they’re rushing this through.”
The SRL business case forecasts Clayton’s population will more than double from about 22,000 to 55,000 by 2056. The number of jobs in the area is estimated to grow from 21,000 to 57,500 in the same period.
That would make its population and jobs density similar to that of Collingwood’s now.
Local businesses have expressed concern that small shopping strips will be bulldozed to make way for the new stations and high-rises, while long-term residents have voiced concern about the drastic change to the character of their suburbs.
The state government has been contacted for comment.
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