Over 100 people packed in to a local forum on the future of the Carlisle Precinct.
TWiSK reports on the forum organised for BEST (Balaclava Environment Streets and Trees) by Helen Halliday, Dr Gerry McLoughlin and Justin Halliday.
Carlisle Street’s two major supermarkets are manoeuvring for redevelopment leaving the community with a swag of concerns and retailers facing years of uncertainty.
Spurred on by the revelation that Council had voted unanimously in August to start the sale of small parcels of land and lanes adjacent to Coles, the well-attended and lively forum demonstrated the depth of concern about the future of Carlisle Precinct.
Local resident and architect/planner Gerardine McLoughlin told the forum that the community may only get one month for consultation via the Council’s Have Your Say website about the sale.
She told the audience that Council had been doing in depth work on the site, including extensive and expensive site investigations since 2018, but planned only a few weeks of community consultation.
Although Council had been briefed in private by Coles, no plans or descriptions have been made available to the public.
All we know is that the land and lane sale to Coles will enable a major redevelopment of the massive site. But don’t hold your breath.
Council is a ‘repeat offender’
Just last week, national headlines flowed from the news that supermarket chains were land banking at least 150 development sites to manipulate and boost their market power.
Locally, Council sold the Wollies carpark to the retail giant for $6.4M in 2020, but there has been no development despite an annual penalty for delaying development in the contract.
Clearly there is a limbo land that surrounds the monopoly game that major supermarkets play – leaving the community to wallow in uncertainty
The forum heard that it will take at least four years for the Coles site to be redeveloped and that ‘the situation on the street would likely get worse before it gets better.’
Dearth of urban quality design
Two of the speakers at the forum were noted Urban Planners and Designers. They emphasised the importance of good design in achieving positive outcomes. But clearly this is easier said than done. One speaker presented a recent case example in Melbourne’s inner West that began with confident planning language supported by beautiful renders and resulted in soulless, largely vacant shop fronts below towering developments. Yikes.
But possibly the most telling moment in the forum was when the expert panel were unable to name any successful developments in Melbourne similar in scope to the Coles / Wollies precinct in Carlisle Steet.
This amplified the growing concern that fifteen or twenty years of Council precinct plans had presided over a steady decline in the area despite Utopia style planning speak.
Candidates back community engagement
The forum also heard briefly from a range of local candidates about their ideas. Libby Buckingham (Labor Balaclava) emphasised safety and community engagement to address the challenges. Jill Harmon (Labor Alma) said she was a former retail workers union official and she had visited many Coles supermarkets. She stressed holding Coles accountable and responsive to the community citing two examples Richmond Traders and Brickworks. Tim Baxter (Greens St Kilda Ward) said he voted for the sale to Coles because there was no one else to sell it to, he maintained hoped for social and affordable housing, open space and parking to create a fantastic urban space. Justin Halliday (Independent Alma) called for the sale to be delayed to increase the opportunity to influence the development.
(View the candidate statements in full at this video recording – skip to 1 hour 20 minutes here)
