Hello Everyone,

Please sign the new petition on the link below, asking councillors to stand firm on the commitment to these heritage properties that they made in June.  

Stop Developer Destruction of Elwood's Heritage Buildings

Your Support is essential if we are to prevent the trashing of Heritage policy in the City of Port Phillip.

The updated plans from the developer for this site involves demolishing in excess of 60% of each of the heritage listed properties at No. 3 and No. 5 Tiuna Grove, retaining only the facades and the rooms at the very front and squeezing double storey extensions on lots that will be reduced by approximately a third.   A massive L- Shaped apartment building; three storeys over almost the entire of the lot at No. 1, will wrap around these diminished buildings with a two-storey wing that will sit on the rear boundary of the properties. The resulting massive structure will be over 50 metres in length, extending over the entire three properties along the rear laneway.  We will be battling this development at VCAT in December.

Not only does the proposal fail to meet the neighbourhood character requirements of the Planning Scheme, it comprehensively fails on heritage, paying only lip service the to these requirements by simply retaining the façade.  These failures include:

•  Reduction of the lot sizes where the policy which calls for their retention
• Demolition of the majority of the heritage listed properties when the policy demands preservation, except in extraordinary circumstances
• A massed over-development along the laneway where the policy seeks to enhance and recover its heritage character
• A massive new development enveloping the diminished heritage properties when the policy requires that new development be respectful in scale and mass of heritage buildings.

Regardless of the manifest failure of this proposal there is every chance that embattled Council Officers will acquiesce to the developers demands and drop their objections, leaving only the residents to fight on at VCAT. The decision of Council Officers is imminent.  Councillors will vote on the officers' recommendation in less than 10 days.