Our Council and the Kew Village Proposal - I thought we the residents mattered. Seems Not.

Urban Planning Delegated Committee Meeting - 20 April 2026 ( watch on YouTube). 

I am a lifetime Kew resident. I was baptised in a local Church, attended a local Primary School and local College. My first casual job was in the original Kew Hot Bread Shoppe.

I lived through the time when Kew was vibrant, busy, fun and alive with community. I remember all the changes over time from visiting the Coles Variety Shop, the local fruit and veg shop, bookshops, restaurants, Sportsgirl for clothes or Step Ahead for shoes etc to racing to Arthur’s Coffee Shop after school to get a table, all through to the Safeway being built and dinners at The Keg to the huge Kew Festival and parades. 

I have also lived through the consistent decline of our Kew Junction, as businesses and restaurants have left, who could no longer sustain success without support and carparking.

My community and I want that vibrant and alive community again. I have a signed petition from everyone in my part of Brougham Street and more than 250 signatures on our Change org petition, to this end.

The Leo’s supermarket space and its surrounding shops area, of course, presents a prime opportunity for re-development and provide Kew Junction with a potentially significant injection of business, trade, people, and community activity.

The Kew Village proposal takes over that space and moves its way up Princess Street and little one-way narrow Brougham Street.

It is not OK and we object to the Kew Village development.

This proposal is not ok to be imposed on us, on our homes on our neighbourhood and on our community.

We ask our Council, you our elected representatives to support us the residents and protect us from this mega development and mega government overreach – we need you to keep us safe and well.

This is Australia, we are a democracy. A democracy, that system of government where power belongs to the people, allowing us to choose leaders and make decisions, often through voting. It literally means "rule by the people",

This Kew Village proposal and its fast tracking is a demonstration of the total rejection of our Australian democratic rights, processes and values.

That is a NO from all of us.

As per my Letter of Objection submitted to the Department of Transport and Planning:

1.     Notice Period

We did not receive sufficient notice to read / review / understand the extent to which this proposal will totally impact us and our quality of life.

From receiving the Notice of an Application for a Planning Permit in the mail and the Public Advertising of the Planning Permit on the subject site, and the dead date for objections – it was just over a week.

This is such a significant proposal in size and impact and complexity and with such permanent outcomes. This proposal would be of interest to the broader community and yet there are no public meetings or communication.

We have been given an appalling short period of time to prepare and submit objections.

This is such a denial of our natural justice, where clearly the owners / developers of the site / Transport and Planning Team have had months if not years to prepare / plan / submit their applications.

2.     The proposal is of a material detriment to us and our neighbourhood 

The proposal is a huge detrimental visual intrusion. From front and back yards – it is a huge concrete block, in whatever materials it is covered in, and will be visible from High Street to Princess Street to our Brougham Street and every other angle you look from.

The proposal is too high and too much and too imposing. 

It is a huge visual block, covering our view of our community, our home - we have worked long and hard to afford to live in our homes, nothing has been given to us.

We do not want a huge visual block where people from their apartments can overlook us – we want to keep our feelings of feelings of privacy and amenity.

This proposal will cause a huge block to our sunlight and send off shadows in all directions. Kew Junction has progressively become darker and darker as more towers have been built. We want our sunlight protected. Why should that be forcibly removed from us.

Shadow Assessments state clearly that : The proposal results in significant overshadowing  impacts to High Street, Princess Street and Brougham Street. 

We object to more shadows in our street in our neighbourhood and definitely not in Kew Junction overall. 

Additionally direct solar reflections from this development and onto our surrounding buildings were not considered in the assessment. 

A full glare assessment needs to happen to confirm whether any glare issues arise.

All these solar reflections and glare from the glass and building buildings can be harmful and dangerous to us and our community – this is also a NO.

3.     A minimum of 194 (up to 400 people as they are not 1-bedroom homes) more people in dwellings, a larger supermarket and 18 new shops and some extra 300 car spaces. This is all significantly more people in the same space – the space and neighbourhood have suddenly not gotten bigger to accommodate all these extra people and movements.

With all these extra people moving around - on foot /  by car / by truck - will all add up to a mega increase to our current noise levels and effect our homelife negatively.

This will also be a mega visual intrusion of artificial lights that we currently do not have and do not willingly sign up to – this further adds negatively to our homelife, our neighbourhood.

With all these extra people and cars – this will produce a significant impact to my environment. Whilst we all move forward with renewables and electric cars, this is not the current situation or a foreseeable short-term situation. 

The reality will be an increase of significant car emissions and every other type of emission and waste; all added to the environment and to our neighbourhood.

4.     Princess Street is an arterial road on one side of the proposal. Princess Street has an undivided carriageway with two lanes of through traffic in each direction of travel. One lane will always have a Bus travelling along it and a lane of carparking on each side – so 1 lane moving in either direction is the norm.

The traffic on Princess Street is hideous and congested now at all times of the day and night. There is no perceivable decrease in traffic flow ever. It is just congestion and an ongoing danger and hazard now.

Studley Park Road is a major arterial road leading up to the subject site. Studley Park Road already moves major flows of traffic in cars and buses.

60 Denmark Street was the site of VicRoads and is being re-developed to deliver up to 500 homes. This is another proposal of significant size and impact to our neighbourhood and community. Denmark Street is already a congested and constantly busy major throughfare. All this will add to the overall traffic network.  

High Street  is another major arterial road leading to the proposal – to get into  Brougham Street now via High Street is a constant queuing exercise. You never get through the Kew Junction on your first round of lights – ever. Getting through Kew Junction and getting into my Brougham Street is a wait and / or manoeuvre now from High Street- tram/ bus / parking cars / pedestrians, cars turning right into my Brougham Street coming down High Street or Cotham Road. 

The current lived reality of  Brougham street is that it is always busy, already carrying more traffic than ever anticipated it would back.

People speed up Brougham Street; it is already dangerous now. I can provide photos and Insurance Claims of cars hitting my front fence and the neighbour’s fence. 

Terrifying instances include a car speeding through the slow point and hitting the car parked there. The car was a ‘write off’. Reported to the police and Council as with all our incidents.

This could have had more dire consequences.

The potential for more dangerous incidents will only increase, with the significant increase of people / cars into an already congested area and a street never made for its already current traffic use.

In my part of Brougham Street from High Street to Malmsbury Street, we already struggle to find a car parking space outside our own homes. We have 2-hour carparking on 1 side of our little street. The parking spots are currently constantly being taken by shoppers and office workers now, who we see moving their cars to avoid the 2-hour parking limit. 

Again, this situation will only be exacerbated by the Kew Village proposal and the extra people and cars, and especially as there are not car spaces provided for each new dwelling proposed. How is this a robust proposal, we are suburban, people want and need a car to move about – it is not like all these new residents will be all working in Kew and walking to work. 

It is time for Brougham Street to be a Permit Car Parking zone.

After all these cars have made their way up our little narrow Brougham Street, then: left only Malmsbury Street into Princess Street, right along Malmsbury and into the peak area around Giant Steps Autism school kids, or continue straight along Brougham street which has cars parked on both sides and only 1 line of traffic at any times – this is already an obstacle course and a danger. 

Are we really suggesting this as a real option ?

1.     The proposal completed a traffic survey commissioned by Traffix Group at the intersection of Princess Street/Council Carpark, Brougham Street/Council Carpark, Brougham Street/High Street and Woodford Avenue/Princess Street.

The traffic survey took place on Friday 29th August and Saturday 30th August 2025

  A 2-day survey of a limited area and not the traffic movement assessment of the area that is Kew Junction and especially our narrow one-way street.

The survey based on  this 2-day survey states that the level of traffic generated as a result of this proposal is acceptable.

The projection that the proposal will generate an additional 163 vehicle movements during the AM peak hour, 236 vehicle movements during the PM peak hour and 262 vehicle movements during the Saturday peak to and from the site.

  This is not acceptable that a proposal of this size and complexity only completed a 2-day traffic survey.

·        It is not acceptable that a 2-day survey was only completed of a limited area and times. This is not a robust or complete survey.

·        Peak Times like School Holidays / Easter / Christmas / Lunch Time / Saturday Mornings / school pick up / coming home from work – you cannot get into Brougham Street from High Street for a long period of time – to get out of Brougham Street onto High Street the queue is up the road to Woolworths – cars turn out of Woolworths onto Brougham Street and then turn right onto the subject site and then out onto Princess Street.

·        It is not acceptable that the additional vehicle movements proposed are deemed acceptable. Where are all these additional vehicle movements going to go – into the already current high traffic volumes.

·        We expect a comprehensive traffic assessment for the subject site and our neighbourhood and KEW JUNCTION proper. 

Logic will dictate that by even the minimum numbers stated in the proposal, the increased traffic generated will detrimentally impact the widely recognised and acknowledged high traffic volumes and congestion – making the neighbourhood and all of us less and less safe. This proposal deliberately puts us in harm’s way.

·        There must be a no left turn into Brougham Street from the subject site.

·        I believe that Traffic Surveys now, even with Leo’s Supermarket closed, will show that the traffic flow and congestion have not eased or lessen in any way. And this will demonstrate that the traffic projections are undercooked and inadequate.

The new east-west link road proposed between Princess Street and Brougham Street, for site access for residential and commercial vehicles, has been assessed and declared as concerning for the increased traffic volumes on Brougham Street.

The Traffic assessment describes Brougham Street, as a residential street, and that it is the wrong outcome for a development of this nature to direct all vehicles, including retail customers through this residential street.

Brougham Street is considered not suitable for material intensification.

Our Council planner has no answer as to why the proposal for the development is 18 storeys? 18 storeys plus floors on top for the PLANT ROOM.

There is NO traffic assessment or strategy for the current Woolworths traffic and the site additional traffic impact to it?

Our Council planner believes the pedestrian thoroughfare from the mega development to Atheneum Plan “is positive”. Is that after they try to cross Brougham street ?

And yet this is the current plan. This is not acceptable for all of us as the residents of the immediate area, Kew Junction and KEW.

Conclusion

We object to this proposal proceeding in its current form. The proposal cannot be any taller than what has already happened to Kew Junction – it is a no to 18 or 14 storeys. 

We need a community democratic discussion – we have not elected Council or Government to tell us what we are having imposed on us.

The cumulative effect of this proposal is to just destroy our neighbourhood and community.

We are the local residents, and we are not going anywhere, whatever the planning scheme or Government Fast Track planning may want.

The proposal will make us all less safe and will put us in the community and those driving through is harm’s way. Why would we accept a proposal that will cause us harm.

This really cannot be the best we can do, 18 and 14 storey visual blocks to the skyline. This cannot be our permanent legacy and contribution to our environment and our world.