2017-02-07
Ms DUNN (Eastern Metropolitan) — On 23 January this year, Knox City Council tabled at its council meeting a report by an independent planning panel that recommended building heights in the town of Upper Ferntree Gully should be mandatory and no more than two storeys high, except at the 1812 Theatre. This was provided for in planning scheme amendment C141. The council voted six to three to abandon planning amendment C141, thereby providing for no height limits.
Upper Ferntree Gully is adjacent to the green wedge and frames the entry to the Dandenong Ranges National Park. It is a significant part of the vista and landscape as you approach the Dandenong Ranges, and height limits are a sensitive matter not only for the residents of Upper Ferntree Gully but also for those thousands and thousands of tourists that visit the Dandenong Ranges and have an expectation that they are in fact going to see trees and not rooftops. It is clearly not an area that is appropriate for high-density development with unchecked height limits.
The action I seek is that the Minister for Planning inquire into the abandonment of the height limits outlined in C141 and ensure that appropriate height restrictions and mandatory controls are put in place in Upper Ferntree Gully.