{"id":73267,"date":"2024-06-26T11:21:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T01:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=73267"},"modified":"2024-06-26T11:21:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T01:21:58","slug":"rail-loops-unprecedented-building-boom-requires-careful-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=73267","title":{"rendered":"Rail loop\u2019s unprecedented building boom requires careful planning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Suburban Rail Loop is a transport project like no other in Victoria\u2019s history. And it\u2019s not just its enormous cost \u2013 the bill for the first stage could reach $34.5 billion \u2013 that is unprecedented. The project is also triggering a development boom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The state Labor government hopes to by 2056 cram twice as many residents as there are now and jobs into a 1.6-kilometre radius around each of the six new stations earmarked for the first stage: Cheltenham, Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, Burwood and Box Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"584\" height=\"389\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-164.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-73268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-164.jpeg 584w, https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-164-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Box Hill\u2019s evolving skyline, seen from Whitehorse Road in February last year.CREDIT:&nbsp;SCOTT MCNAUGHTON<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>To reach that target, residential towers of up to 25 storeys&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p5fmz6\">will be allowed above most stations<\/a>, while in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p5jnyo\">Box Hill, a 50-storey tower<\/a>&nbsp;has already been given the green light. The building spree is being expedited by the government\u2019s Development Facilitation Program, which fast-tracks projects by bypassing the usual council planning hurdles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All up, the new high-rise towers are expected to deliver more than 70,000 homes to cater for Melbourne\u2019s booming population, which&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p5ete3\">is expected to hit<\/a>&nbsp;6.45 million by 2034 \u2013 an increase of more than 1 million on today\u2019s population. That\u2019s a lot of people to manage in a city where much of the health, education and transport infrastructure is already under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For decades, Melbourne has spread outwards, first along the veins of its rail lines, then filling the car-dependent spaces in between. That has been the simplest and most popular way to provide the affordable housing that has underpinned the city\u2019s expansion. The Achilles heel of this approach is, so often, the much promised but rarely delivered infrastructure and services that are taken as a given in Melbourne\u2019s inner and middle suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result,\u00a0<em>The Age<\/em>\u00a0broadly agrees with the principle that the bulk of extra housing needed for the city\u2019s expanding population should be absorbed into Melbourne\u2019s current boundaries. But that principle comes with caveats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Age<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Suburban Rail Loop is a transport project like no other in Victoria\u2019s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":70745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,8160],"tags":[993,8],"class_list":["post-73267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-news","category-suburban-rail-loop","tag-melbourne","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73271,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73267\/revisions\/73271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}