The Victorian government has green-lit the construction of a large housing precinct in Melbourne’s outer north, but community members are angered that approval for a new quarry was also granted despite their objections.
Wedged between Beveridge and Wallan, the new suburb of Beveridge North West will see 15,000 new homes built for an estimated 47,000 people.
The 320-hectare development will also include four new shopping centres, eight schools, sports fields, and dedicated green spaces and community hubs, delivered in stages.
No mention of railway station providing an ability to travel to Melbourne. This should have been announced at the same time the “quarry” and the 50,000 resident area was announced and not have been approved without the station. It feels like the Vicrtorian Government does not listen to residents and planning is still entirely broken.
Only 1.2% of people living in the northern areas of Beveridge and surrounds use public transport, a significant planning failure.
“This is a significant development for the area, delivering more homes and delivering on Victoria’s Housing Statement,” Victoria’s planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, said.
A key element of the project involves the establishment of a new quarry in the suburb’s north-east corner, which the government says will have a buffer zone before closing in 2052.
The key element is a quarry and not a train station.
Planning materials from 2020 suggest the area sits on a reserve of about 12 million tonnes of high-quality basalt, by one estimate, which could supply major projects and local urban development.
That sounds like a rail connection is required to move the product to key locations around Melbourne as not all of the product will be used locally. Who would wish to live near a quarry with 200 trucks a day travelling near your house. The number of trucks already on the roads is horrific with road safety suffering.
But stakeholder groups say approval was waved through despite widespread opposition during consultation.
Mayor of the Mitchell Shire Council John Dougall said it was a “poor outcome” that locals had advocated against from the outset.
Yet another example of the government not listening to residents and making an already significant problem worse. This area was outlined as a major issue for transport during the federal election this year no public transport options have been announced and now the issue is about to be made a lot worse.
“We are deeply disappointed, really, with this decision. I think it’s going to be devastating for many in our community, and we think it’s a really poor planning decision,” he said.
“The location of this quarry is going to really disrupt the arterial roads that were going to be used to connect it and the plan for the ecology and the waterways in the area, which really are quite magnificent and need to be protected.”
Bronwen Clark from the National Growth Areas Alliance said it is going to bring growth to towns already straining under inadequate infrastructure.
“There is already a significant lag in the delivery of infrastructure, and a deficit in available infrastructure right at the moment,” she said.
Hayley Dennis, a resident of the new suburb, said the community was already “bursting at the seams”.
“At the moment, we have a one lane in and a one lane out onto the highway, and it struggles,” she said.
When it is all said and done, Victoria does not have a transport plan, a freight plan, and a plan for housing which reduces car dependency and opens up development that is more entirely friendly, but we have a plan for a treaty. Many are now losing patience with this government daily.
$40B has been sucked out of the public purse for the North East Link a project we could have done without and one without a viable business case. That money could have and should have been invested into rail projects for public transport such as Beveridge, and integrated logistics centres.
The best case of lunacy in living memory. A few of my thoughts; How could any planner knowing exclude public transport when 98.8% of the people already there cannot access or do not use public transport. The solution of course is to add more people. By not dispair, we are knowing in not a set of steak knives but a quarry to boot!
The quarry is open until 2052. No mention of a rail service to the new estate and no mention of rail access to a quary with a useful life of 27 years. Anywhere else I agree there would be a rail siding.
But the land here and get trucks all night, no passenger rail services, and road congestion trippling. Only in Victoria would this ever have become a standard.
Hard to see how this could not be one o the largest planning failures in the states history. Where is the public transport and/or the rail branch to the suburb?