45-69 Woodland Street

MacroPlan Pty Ltd act on behalf of St Columban’s Mission Property Association and have applied for a Planning Permit to redevelop the Victorian Heritage listed property and its adjoining land historically known as North Park Estate. The planning permit application seeks approval for the following:

• Partial demolition of buildings on site;
• Carrying out works in a Heritage Overlay;
• Construction of 25 townhouses;
• Construction of a mixed use building consisting of ground floor office and residential village;
• Authorise the continued use of an office in a residential zone pursuant to Clause 63.10;
• Creation and alteration to Road Zone Category 1; and
• Four lot staged subdivision.

A planning objection is a formal submission that opposes a planning application. Anyone who feels they will be detrimentally affected by an advertised planning application can submit an objection, provided that it’s received before Council make a decision.

A letter of support may be formally submitted to support the application from anyone who feels the application presents a positive design response on the site.

Letters of objection or support can be lodged through Council’s website at any time until the decision has been made.

A petition can be lodged but please be aware that it only counts as one objection and that only the first name on the petition will be lodged as an objector to the application.

Please note an objection/submission is a public document and copies may be made available to other parties including the applicant, Councillors and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Councillors decided unanimously at a Council Meeting on 8 September 2020 to engage independent external advice from the Victoria Design Review Panel, an experienced heritage consultant and a landscape architect or arborist. These independent reviews will assist Council in their assessment of the application.

No. Please refer to the advertised plans for an understanding of the proposed works.

A separate application for the same proposal is required to be sought through State Government due to the state heritage significance of the North Park Estate (buildings and grounds). Application No. P29647 has been lodged with Heritage Victoria and is pending a decision.

The application to Heritage Victoria is an independent process and assessment from that of the application to Council. The legislation allows the two applications to run concurrently and they are not dependant on one another. The permit applicant is required to receive a favourable outcome from both Council and Heritage Victoria’s applications to progress the development. If one or both of these applications are refused, the development is void.

Any enquiries relating to Application P29647 must be directed to Heritage Victoria.

Heritage Victoria is a determining authority for Council’s application for the subdivision component of the proposal. This means that Heritage Victoria must provide formal comments on the proposal stating that it either ‘object’ or ‘do not object’ to the proposed subdivision. If Heritage Victoria objects, Council must refuse the application. Council has sought formal comments from Heritage Victoria and is awaiting a response.

It is not Council’s role to suggest alternative uses for the site, but it is to assess the application put before us against the merits of the Moonee Valley Planning Scheme.

We acknowledge that there are difficulties as a result of COVID-19 and Council’s Statutory Planning Department has been compliant with Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) directive on 24 April 2020 to make all planning documents related to this and other applications available online for review as opposed to at the Civic Centre building. Moreover, currently there has been no directive from the DELWP to suspend or pause the planning permit assessment process, as such we cannot put any application on hold. The application MV/3/2020 has been advertised under the requirements of Section 52 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (The Act).

Nonetheless, Council’s Statutory Planning Department has internally agreed to give an additional 2 weeks for objections to be received for any advertised Planning Permit applications on top of the 14 day advertising period as required by The Act. This includes 4 signs on the site and 300 letters to the adjoining properties, to ensure that residents have sufficient time to respond if they choose to. Objections can be received up until the day a decision is made by Council. We have advertised the application in the Herald Sun and on our Council website via the links below.
 

• Advertised documents (available until 6 September 2020)
• Herald Sun public notice
• Council’s Major Developments – access to documents and updates

Council Officers prepared and mailed the advertising letters to 300 residents on 6 August 2020. Given the described 4 weeks above, this resulted in the letter stating “the responsible authority will not decide on the application before 3 September 2020”.

The second part of the advertising process is the display of the advertising signs. In this regard the permit applicant was notified on 6 August 2020 to arrange collection of the 4 advertising signs and subsequently erected the signs shortly thereafter, calculated the required 14-day period, and inserted “26 August 2020” on the signs. This is the end date as calculated for the signs but does not override or limit the date mentioned above. There are no legislative requirements to change the 14 day display of advertising signs during COVID-19 therefore, Council has no ability to require an extended date to be displayed on the site notices, hence the permit applicant wrote 26 August 2020 on the signs as the conclusion of display of the signs on site for 14 days.

Council will provide updates on our Major Development website page available here.

An overview of the planning permit process located here.

The decision by Council includes seeking expert advice from various authorities such as Heritage Victoria, Department of Transport and various Council departments. A decision cannot be made until all referral comments are obtained and complete assessment of the advertised documentation occurs, including the review and consideration of all objections/submission.

Council will not disclose their position on the application prior to a decision being made.

Once all referrals have been obtained and advertising is complete. We note this process may be delayed due to COVID-19 and the caretaker period associated with local government elections.