How were the Residents involved in the Previous Planning review ?   How will the Current DD08,  C96 review be handled ?

Strategy Presented To The Panel: C50

The draft of provisions provided to the panel Nov 2005 document is at odds with Council’s undertaking to the community. Even the Manningham officers report, presented to Councillors prior to presentation to the panel on the 27/9/05, did not mention storeys.

The chronology of documents speak for themselves, Council first advertised a plan acceptable to the community then without consulting the public, presented an entirely different plan to the Panel hearing in November 2005.

• Information on the Residential Strategy was advertised over a period of more than 12 months, in media articles and letters sent to 30,000 affected parties (2004 to 2005)
• They clearly stipulated that two storeys would be permitted on lots less than 2000m2 and three storeys on larger lots with height limits of 9m and 11m respectively.
• This development formula was accepted by the community since two storey town house clusters were already being developed.
• The letter to affected residents was dated 26/4/05.
• The two information sessions followed on the 12/5/05 and 16/5/05, attended by a total of 270 people.
• However the Draft of Provisions provided to the Panel for approval on 22/11/05 was at odds with what had been presented to the public.
• Storeys were removed from the equation and only height limits were retained which allowed developers to squeeze another storey by employing a flat roof and/or lowering the ground floor below the Natural Ground Level.
• Later when challenged why the public were not informed , Council responded by saying that only the 65 submitters who had responded to the letter to affected residents by making written submissions were eligible to receive information on the changes and they were not obliged to re-inform the wider community.
• The Panel report was not released until March 26, 2006.
• Even after the release of the report it was difficult to obtain information, there were references to the aim of the strategy in several in editions of the Manningham Matters (which I have obtained from the Manningham Library) even information appearing on the website, that the C50 (the residential strategy) had been gazetted in 2007, did not mentioned the changes council had made to its previous undertaking…in any event it would not have mattered since the strategy had already been accepted by the panel.

Refer to the letters below for further details :   Manningham Leader Articles On Residential Strategy  C50-Letter-to-Affected-Parties

Panel Report Release 26th March 06    Council Agenda For Date 27-Sep-2005 REPORT ONLY.DOC     Draft of Provisions Provided to Panel Nov 2005