By Mikayla van Loon
The construction of 11 dwellings in Lilydale’s newest emerging housing estate have been approved by Yarra Ranges Council, being called a “reasonable example of townhouse development”.
Known as Wynnlea, the estate runs behind Petstock and Supercheap Auto off Maroondah Highway, running parallel to the Warburton Rail Trail.
The development, led by Westrock under John Delany, has seen the first stage of houses be built at Janson Place with this further 11 homes requiring council approval because the budget is over $3 million.
Representing the developer at the Tuesday 25 June council meeting, Millar Merrigan director Simon Merrigan said this was an example of meeting the newly appointed housing targets.
“Amidst the housing crisis with ambitious targets for housing, which I know the council’s aware of from the recent adoption of the housing strategy, and the even more ambitious targets the State Government is pushing for, this is a really good site to be helping to address those targets,” he said.
Each house has been proposed as a two storey with either, two, three or four bedrooms, and open space in the form of a balcony or ground level garden.
Being a residential growth zone, built form does not need “to protect and enhance existing neighbourhood character”, instead it can “effectively [establish] a new character for the area” but must meet the Yarra Ranges Multi-Residential Guidelines for Townhouses according to the council’s report.
A section of the site fell under the inundation overlay extending from the north-west corner of the site to the Janson Place frontage, but “the site has been filled to a minimum 600mm above the one per cent Average Exceedance Probability (AEP) flood level, negating flooding concerns”.
Yarra Ranges Council did however, place conditions on the drainage and easement to address concerns relating to flooding, in particular a maintenance schedule.
Quarterly maintenance by the council’s team and the assurance that the overland flow and easement would not be obstructed or obscured was essential to these conditions.
“The proposed permit conditions which provide for what I call a failsafe or a belts and braces approach for providing for overland flow of the site if there is a failure effectively of the drainage system,” Mr Merrigan said.
“Westrock are well credentialed to be able to deliver that through the integrated development they’re proposing on this site and they accept those conditions.”
Mr Merrigan said that recent works had also addressed some “infrastructure that had contributed to problems with flooding”.
The council’s built environment and infrastructure team confirmed works had improved the wing wall and grate of the Nelson Road drain that passes through the site but further works were still to be carried out.
“We are also undertaking vegetation removal works along the watercourse upstream. So this will help minimise a lot of the debris that comes in blocking the inlet structure,” they said.
“We are also raising the band adjacent to the inlet structure and to ensure that the excess flows aren’t diverted into the downstream properties.”
Councillor Tim Heenan put forward the motion to approve the planning application but said it was not without initial concern.
“This is obviously something that has been reasonably well thought out but the grave concerns I had were for the drainage and right from the get go,” he said.
“There have been changes and there are more to come. We have substantial flow coming overland and obviously underground from that substantial drain from Maroondah Highway.
“We now have a regime in place where that drainage is going to be maintained [under] a substantially better maintenance regime [than what was] before.”
With the “stringent conditions” Cr Heenan said he was “now convinced” that both the developer and the council’s responsibilities had been outlined clearly.
Cr Jim Child said he “wholeheartedly [agreed]” with Cr Heenan that an “appropriate maintenance regime” had been included but said in terms of delegations, this application shouldn’t have needed to come to the chamber.
“For this work, the amount of money for this developer is $3,519,320, just a half a million dollars over the threshold,” he said.
“If you look at this application, it shouldn’t even have come to the chamber. What time has been added to the application process to bring this into this chamber? I believe that the applicant would have the planning permit in their hand if it wasn’t covered under this chamber.”
Cr Child said he had “confidence in the developer” given the “outstanding” work shown building homes in Yarra Junction.
The approval was carried unanimously.
