The City of Yarra has been talking a big game about supporting small businesses recover from COVID-19, creating pocket parks to provide green spaces in the area, and the Climate Crisis.

But as a small business operator in the City of Yarra, who has battled through lockdown after lockdown, and had to continue to summon the energy to keep my business going over 20 months, they have dealt us the most bitter blow this week. 

Like everyone, we're navigating our way through this roadmap to reopening and what it might look like for us, it's become very clear that in the short and longer term, outdoor trading will become a key to survival. Unlike many businesses, we will not be eligible for an onstreet parklet the council keeps promoting. One of the key elements of our plans to survive and thrive is a rear courtyard, which will provide us with 20 seats upon reopening.

Last week the council's Planning Development Committee voted to support a planning permit for a six storey building on our boundary, at 268-272 Church Street (PL21/0271).

Not only will it cause disruption during construction, with noise and rubble from the construction period, it will also completely overshadow our courtyard from noon each day. Terraces will be constructed directly above our courtyard, putting our license at risk from noise complaints from residents. Under the current plans, our licensed courtyard has been classified as a concrete car park, despite holding the license for five years, with the very same council. So our business was not taken into account at any stage of the planning proposal. 

The committee's Greens' councillors Sophie Wade and Edward Crossland supported the proposal, despite the fact that it will overshadow our pocket park, and apart from destroying our amenity, it will detrimentally affect the whole neighbourhood through overshadowing, and traffic flow onto very small, very unsuitable streets.

We believe that the council has not clearly or accurately considered how this development will be detrimental to our business, and the beautiful little community we have around us in our little pocket of Richmond. Ben Alexander Reserve is an oasis for native birds, children, residents, and has provided tenants with a connection to community that is impossible to overstate, and has helped us all retain some sanity and sense of community during the last two years. 

The overdevelopment seen in neighbouring suburbs such as South Yarra has completely destroyed the soul of those places, and Richmond can't afford to lose its soul - it's how businesses like Atlas Vinifera managed to survive at all during the ongoing pandemic. We are one of the luckier ones, having a loyal and loving following. Our survival was entirely due to our community, as we couldn't access JobKeeper, as we only lost 28% year on year, and didn't cook the books. 

The decision by the Planning Development Committee - which we have to now challenge at VCAT - comes as the City of Yarra has spent hundreds of thousands working on the Design Development Overlay framework for Bridge Road and our little part of Church Street. Under the interim DDO, which residents have been asked to comment on, the site of the planning application should have been subject to a 15m height limit - three or four storeys, not 6.

This decision is not in the public interest, or in the interests of the neighbouring businesses who have not been listened to  - despite the fact that this strip of Church Street is commercially-zoned. In the almost 5 years that we have been open, we have become an iconic venue in Richmond, beloved by locals and wine trade alike. We have featured in Broadsheet, inspired similar venues to open in Richmond, and been nominated for awards. Just last week we appeared on Time Out Melbourne's list of Best Wine Bars in Melbourne, as Richmond's only representation. Nothing that we have built here has been even taken into consideration by the council when approving this development

Please sign and share our petition widely. You can write to the Planning Minister Richard Wynne, who has the ability to call in a planning permit. (richard.wynne@parliament.vic.gov.au). You can also write to the Mayor (gabrielledevietri@yarracity.vic.gov.au) and the Melba Ward counsellors (melbawardcouncillors@yarracity.vic.gov.au).

Help Atlas Vinifera and this wonderful pocket of Richmond to survive. 

- Abby and the team at Atlas Vinifera