By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
IT’S the battle between Cranbourne home owners and the State Government that could change the way share houses are developed across Victoria.
Hundreds of Brookland Greens residents with the backing of Casey Council are locked in a fight with the State Government as they push to change laws surrounding share house provisions.
More than 340 Casey residents met at the Cranbourne Turf Club to hear from council officers, Cr Geoff Ablett and Shadow Minister for Planning David Davis on Monday 25 January.
The site in question at 5 Concord Place, Cranbourne has been subject to several protests and two petitions to stop a proposed development of two 10-place share houses.
Locals have labelled the current lack of council involvement in the establishment of share houses as an “absurd situation”.
As it stands, State Government laws allow share housing to go ahead without prior council planning approval or consultations with neighbours.
The agitated crowd pushed the powerless Casey council officers for answers throughout the one-hour meeting with hopes the State Government will answer their calls in the coming weeks.
Director of Planning and Development at City of Casey, Peter Fitchett told the crowd “the devil is in the detail.”
Mr Fitchett explained to the audience that the only way to truly win the fight is if the law is formerly gazetted to include the council’s right to consider planning as well as what the development will be used for.
“And we’ve written to the State Government about this,” Mr Fitchett said.
Shadow Minister for Planning David Davis admitted that there was a “loophole” in the law, saying the State Government had stated in recent days that a change was imminent.
But for one Cranbourne resident, the amendments will come much too late.
Wishing to remain anonymous, a resident of Hawdon Drive Cranbourne came forward on the night and expressed how she and her neighbours lived in angst, next door to a share house.
“There’s plenty of drug overdoses there, stabbings, consistent drug dealing and fights,” she said.
“We hear the yelling, swearing and carrying on and one night we woke up to find the fence had been pulled down during an argument – the gate had been thrown into the middle of road.”
“It was a nice quiet area to retire in and we don’t want to go looking for something else – we have thought about moving, but then you think why should we?”
Since moving into her home 14 years ago, the adjacent rental turned into a share house and she said “people come and go all the time”, leaving neighbours fearing for their safety.
“I know my house won’t get what it’s worth because of the share house opposite and I can understand how the Brookland Greens residents are feeling, because I’m living with it,” she said. “There are tyres on the front lawn, broken bits of fence and no-one wants to live next to that – I try and keep a nice home.”
More petition signatures were gathered on the night of the meeting and Cr Ablett promised locals he would continue to put pressure on Cranbourne MP Jude Perera as well as other state MPs.
Under law, construction at the Concord Place development cannot be halted, despite a big local push to do so.
