Planning policies
Planning regulation in Victoria is the responsibility of both the State and local government.
Planning covers many aspects of our neighbourhoods and strongly influence how these areas look and function. It is an issue of great concern to our readers. Our contributors have sent us many articles that range from criticism of the broad government policies at both the State and Local Government levels to concerns over specific planning decisions and their impact on a specific neighbourhood.
On this page, we post articles and letters we have received from our friends and supporters expressing their misgivings about the impact of specific aspects of planning policies.
See our other posts covering this topic
- Planning – Victorian State policies
- Planning regulations – housing and activity centres
- Planning – environment and neighbourhood protection
The opinions expressed here remain those of the writer; it should not be taken that Eastsider News and ICNG necessarily supports the views expressed. If you wish to have your say on any issue posted here, please email us at eastsidernews1@gmail.com
Nelson Road Box Hill planning proposal – a response from a cyclist
Elaine Hopper
The February 2025 issue of Eastsider News featured an article by Michael Kirk, a former CEO of Box Hill Hospital, about what he called ‘a misguided planning proposal’ for Nelson Road, Box Hill.
I would like to assure readers that, contrary to what was stated in that article, there was an extensive consultation process by Council, for Nelson Road improvements. This included the managers of the two Nelson Road hospitals, Epworth and Box Hill, as well as managers of the RSL and the Box Hill Institute (TAFE). In addition, community members from the various groups that use Nelson Road took part in workshops and these included two groups representing cyclists and walkers. There were also nurses, and local people from the Elgar Contact group. On checking with council, I was told that further talks were held with the RSL, and with the Box Hill Hospital management to consider their concerns. I was a participant as a cycling advocate in the Nelson Road workshops and forums.
The consultation was then widened to allow for more community input, and the process wound up in April 2023 at which point a 4-stage plan for improvements was prepared.
That plan involves pedestrianisation and calming of the area, making it walker and cycle friendly. Nelson Road is on a Principal Bicycle Network route leading north to Box Hill and the Gardiners Creek Trail, and south to connect to the Koonung Trail. Cyclists would be enabled to use it as a commuting route to Nelson Road itself, and to other destinations. Mr Kirk wants to know how many cyclists use the route now. Well, safety there is a big concern yet to be solved for them, as well as for pedestrians. The upgrades will enable alternative transport to be more viable and attractive to people who attend the hospital and the TAFE.
Nelson Road is certainly challenging. Busses, cars, taxis, bikes and pedestrians are always about in the daytime, and large waste removal trucks operate in the early hours. The street is narrow. Safety has been helped by recent 40kph speed limits, but the pavements and the nature strips near the hospitals are broken down and have hollows and tree roots. There is a pedestrian crossing in Nelson Road near the Box Hill hospital, but many people cross elsewhere, unprotected, along the area between Thames and Arnold Street.
The plans for improvement are in line with the Council’s Metropolitan Activity Centre Review Report which recommended modifying Nelson Road (and the central area of Box Hill) to prioritise pedestrians and cyclists, to cater for the huge increase in population planned for that area, with most people living in high-rise apartments.
The staged plan involves eventually removing parking on Nelson Road, parking which would be replaced elsewhere. For those who are too frail to walk far, there are circular driveways into both hospitals for people being dropped off or picked up by car or taxi. There is other parking already available in nearby streets. Refuge places for pedestrians along the centre of the road, will make the road safer for them.
If readers would like to see the Nelson Road plans the link is here: Nelson Road, Box Hill, Safety Improvements | Your Say Whitehorse
https://yoursay.whitehorse.vic.gov.au/nelson-road
Elaine Hopper is a committee member of Metro East Bicycle User Group
Traffic Calming on Nelson Rd
Irene Moser PhD, Burwood
In your article Nelson Road, Box Hill a misguided planning proposal (Eastsider News Edition 28), Michael Kirk argues against the safety improvements Council is planning for Nelson Rd, opining that outpatients and visitors are being ‘dispossessed’, having to use more expensive parking spaces.
It is an attitude cyclists encounter often: Risking your life counts for nothing when (cheap) parking is in jeopardy. Larger and larger vehicles occupied by ‘frail’ patients whose abilities at the wheel might not be the best while distracted by, say, being late for an appointment.
Kirk might be surprised to hear that ‘recreational’ cycling is not what I do on Nelson Rd. Having been nursed back from a life-changing, SUV-induced injury at the Epworth, cycling to my appointments is just what the doctor ordered. For most patients, the need to drive scuppers opportunities for physical exercise, which for almost all patients improves health outcomes.
While unable to cycle, I arrived in a taxi. Limping on crutches to the hospital amidst cars carelessly pushing past was a panic-inducing nightmare. Wider, smoother footpaths that are easier to use with mobility aids would also have helped.
Hearing about my specialist’s interest in cycling to work, my first reaction was fear for his life. Every cyclist knows that cars are a mortal danger. A Monash study reported that 78% of survey respondents count themselves as ‘interested but concerned’. This is where the ‘current’ cyclists are that Kirk is asking for: waiting for a safe cycling network where they won’t experience what I did.
Nelson Road, Box Hill – a misguided planning proposal
Michael Kirk OAM
Whitehorse Council recently submitted it’s MAC (Metropolitan Activity Centre) review report to the Suburban Rail Loop Authority. Among other things, the MAC report recommends that Nelson Road, Box Hill be modified to give priority to cyclists and pedestrians. The road would be converted from its existing role to become a corridor for cyclists wishing to ride their cycles from North Box Hill to southern points of the Metropolitan area. In December 2024 the SLR confirmed that it had accepted Whitehorse Council’s recommendations.
As a former CEO of Box Hill Hospital (1980 – 1990), I hold significant misgivings about this proposal which I have documented here: https://www.eastsidernews.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Nelson-Rd-long-version-2.pdf.
Residents up in arms over destruction of neighbourhood amenity
Richard Blakeman
Once the site of the largest chicken farm in the Southern Hemisphere and a locally famous menagerie that drew visitors from near and far, the Aisbett Estate in Camberwell is now the subject of a dispute over another type of huge development – an imposing house currently under construction that pushes planning regulations to the absolute limit and possibly beyond.
The building under construction, an imposing three-storey dwelling in Quercus Court, Camberwell, has exposed potential loopholes in planning regulations that may permit unscrupulous operators to flout the regulations with impunity.
To read more, click here.