Update on the McIvor Reserve Masterplan

The MCC meeting of 29 March to vote on a masterplan that sites a regional 1000-seat stadium on busy parkland at McIvor Reserve, was split with Mayor Sarah Carter, Cr Cuc Lam and Cr Anthony Tran voting to build on green space, and Cr Bernadette Thomas, Cr Jorge Jorquera and Cr Michael Clarke voting against the motion in favour of seeking a solution that better meets the needs of all members of the community and preserves desperately needed green space for the Inner West. 

Unfortunately, with Yarraville’s Greens Councillor away at the time, the Labor member Mayor Carter (whose views from as early as the Draft Masterplan were seemingly aligned with delivering this proposal) used her tie-breaking vote to support this ill-conceived plan that will guarantee long lasting negative impacts for most neighbours of the park and all residents who would otherwise benefit from open space, including the three to four thousand Bradmill residents who will neighbour the park in years to come.

It wasn’t enough that the Mayor won the day. Mayor Carter chose to deride some members of the community that didn’t agree with her views on delivering sports infrastructure at the cost of green space. Coming from a seasoned local politician, the comments came as a disappointment to many, yet somehow were not surprising given similar tactics have been employed by the Maribyrnong City Council throughout the entire engagement process. It seems when Councils cannot deliver convincing data or good reasoning to overcome resistance in the community, attacking the opposition is an all-too-common substitute.

Councillors Jorquera and Thomas, who have recognised the problems with the Council’s plan, spoke very eloquently about the community spirit that has been shown by residents in favour of protecting public parkland at McIvor, and stressed the need for a win-win solution for the community.

Roadblocks along the way.

It’s no secret that the current State and Federal Governments are spending millions to deliver sports infrastructure across Victoria and that the environment often plays second fiddle to ‘progress’. It’s also no secret that Minister Katie Hall and Minister Melissa Horne (our State representatives), following countless pleas from the community, have given nobody reason to believe they are interested in protecting this particular green space in our city, despite their understanding of how important green space is to the people of the Inner West, and despite the implications of the CFMEU’s Green Ban on the site. 

The community’s calls for help to deliver a brown-field site for the stadium project, or to compel the council to deliver honest engagement appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Contrary to MCC’s claims that there are no brown field options in a city full of brown field sites, I’m confident that if McIvor Reserve’s public parkland was taken off the table, another option would materialise. Particularly if the plan is adjusted to deliver community-level facilities over commercial-style stadiums. 

The Council has never shared any analysis about how the 2018 Stadium Strategy could be implemented in a city with very limited open space. It has never explained why a valued parkland like McIvor was even under consideration, when it's had strategies in place since 2015 dictating that open space should not be used for facilities of this nature. Even in 2018, McIvor Reserve was immediately recognised at having amenity issues and was only considered appropriate for a 4 court facility at best. The Council has also chosen not to share any detail of the ‘due diligence’ for the many other sites that have been under consideration. What is it that the Maribyrnong Council don’t want the public to know?

If individuals at any level of Government think it makes good sense to waste yet another piece of critical public parkland by building infrastructure that can be built elsewhere, they might get a rude awakening next time they ask for votes from the Inner West. It’s a message that is being delivered over and over again to them. At some point, their statistics will tell them that there are more votes in protecting green, than anything else.

Good News - We still have a chance to fix this.

Fortunately, right now there is a chance to go back and re-think this miss-step in council planning; an opportunity for all those in power to do the right thing for the overwhelming majority of residents who believe that protecting what’s left of our natural environment should be a leading priority.

There is an avenue for recourse on the McIvor Masterplan, an opportunity to get the upgrades for McIvor right, and to deliver a more appropriate site for stadium infrastructure.

Councillors have moved to rescind the vote of the 29th, which would nullify the outcome.  This shouldn't come as a surprise to Council given that the majority of Councillors have indicated that they can't support the masterplan as presented on the 29th, and if all seven Councillors had been able to participate, the outcome would have been different. The vote on the Motion To Rescind will take place on the 18th of April. 

Protecting against poor development and other forces that erode the liveability of our neighbourhoods is the responsibility of everyone that calls this city home. McIvor Reserve is not the first parkland to come under pressure from overdevelopment and it won’t be the last. The one thing that’s for sure is that if green space at McIvor Reserve is lost, we will never get it back. 

Show you care and turn up to support your Councillors at 6.30pm on Tuesday 18th of April.