another beautiful home, goneI was driving down Nicholson Street towards Bentleigh today when I came across this demolished housing lot made up of scattered red bricks and a grey fence that appears to have only been recently painted. For those who don't know, Nicholson Street runs parallel to the Frankston train line and the infamous Bent Street, where old homes are rapidly being replaced with apartment buildings that tower over neighbours homes. I had walked down Nicholson street many times before, but as often is the case, when you come across something that is no longer there, it becomes hard to remember what stood there before, the familiarity of a place suddenly unfamiliar. You scan your memories, hunting for an image of what stood in this place before. So I rushed home and searched GoogleMaps to find out what home stood here. And, oh what a beautiful home it was. I often admired the garden when I walked passed it. And this home was in wonderful, renovated state. What drives people to sell their home, particularly one like this? At the core of it, it has to be greed. And money. Surely. I can't imagine demolishing a home like this, otherwise. Is this what we call progress? And what will be built in it's place? Another bland, grey concrete box, with apartments crammed into a single block? The future looks bright, doesn't it?
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Glen Eira calls for tenderA Glen Eira resident spotted this in The Saturday Age, 21 January 2017. The council are inviting tenders for intersection Treatment Works on the corner of McKinnon and Wheatley Road. Right on the roundabout of the proposed C143 development. I am not sure what this means for any future development on this particular corner; however, I am curious that this has appeared.
It has been brought to our attention by The Glen Eira Residents Association (GERA) that residents who submitted objections to Glen Eira Council via email may not have been registered due to an "email glitch". This issue came to the attention of GERA by the Bethlehem Hospital Community Action Group (BHCA) when objectors did not receive auto-replies from the council. According the council, it is an "unexplainable glitch" in their email system. We do not know if it our campaign was affected by this "glitch". However, if you did not receive either an auto-reply from the council or an official letter in the mail acknowledging your objection you will need to resend your objection again.
When resending your objection, please make sure you CC our email address savemckinnonvillage (at) gmail.com AND please put the subject Objection to Amendment C143 & DDO Schedule 6, 88-100 McKinnon Road, McKinnon. I noticed a few emails without a subject in the email. It is not too late to send it in. Objections can be sent right up until the planning conference on 23 February 2017. And please, pass this on to as many of your neighbours as possible, if they haven't already sent in their objections. Numbers speak loud and clear! I came across this op-ed today in The Age. In it, Clay Lucas discusses Bent Street and the the quality of housing being built in and around, not only Glen Eira, but Melbourne. Dodgy builders erecting structures that are so poor in quality, they will probably need to be pulled down in the future. I have already had a number of people tell me that they live in these new apartment buildings. What they see, after only a couple of years, are leaky roofs, crumbling walls, cement rendering on the outside crumbling and windows and doors that no longer close properly. Why would anybody want to spend over $500,000 on a one bedroom apartment and be left with hefty body corporate expenses in the future to fix this mess? Take a look at Bent Street, Bentleigh and see for yourself. Most residents in Glen Eira, and in many other suburbs across Melbourne have had enough. Have your say and object to C143 amendment before it is too late.
We don't know how many residents in McKinnon received the original letter advising us of the C143 amendment. However, after a request to council to explain the process and what the actual amendment means to the surrounding residents and McKinnon Village, a new explanatory letter was sent out. How many residents received this, we don't know, but it is a small step in our battle to stop this amendment in its current form going through.
The Art Decos that once stood here may not have seemed 'historic' to some. These homes, about eighty-plus-years old as of 2016, don't get a historic overlay. Not old enough. But in ten to twenty years time, as the semi-detached homes fall to developers around the Glen Eira area and beyond, these cute little cottages, built during World War Two, will become a rare jewel. McKinnon is a small suburb of two square kilometres. It's tiny compared to Bentleigh. But take a walk around the suburb and you will find that the semi-detached is disappearing. The solid, double-brick homes, built to last forever, are being replaced by concrete multi-storey monsters that dominate the skyline. Their shadows casting a sad future for the humble Art Deco. Forever.
All you need to do is refer to this blog post from the Glen Eira Debates in December 2014.
Nothing has changed. The Californian Bungalows have fallen. And the bland concrete boxes have arisen. The cumulative impacts have been ignored. Do you want this to happen to McKinnon Road and Lees Street? Have your say and object. |
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Save mckinnon villageWe are concerned residents who live on McKinnon Road, near McKinnon Village. This website was set up to object to the C143 ammendment to 88-100 McKinnon Road, McKinnon. If this, and the DDO overlay for four storeys goes ahead, it will be a catastrophe. Blog roll |