The Carlisle Precinct Community Forum, held on Thursday 3 October, demonstrated the depth of our community’s concern and care for our local shopping village.
The forum, hosted by Balaclava Environment Streets and Trees, was attended by 120 people, who packed the St Kilda Baptist Church on Pakington St.
We heard how Carlisle Street is being smashed by changing shopping habits, sky-high rents, the housing and cost of living crises draining people’s disposable incomes, increased cost of goods for traders, and years of neglect by Council.
Four years ago, on the eve of the last Council election, the council decided to sell the Woolworths carpark. Council hoped that the sale of the carpark would spur redevelopment of the site, delivering a new supermarket, on-site parking, and more housing. Yet, four years on there’s no sign of this redevelopment.
Now, on the eve of another Council election, Council has initiated the sale of more properties, this time in the Coles carpark. This sale will not be an open tender, as there’s effectively only one bidder, Coles. So the proposed sale would be directly to Coles at market value.
However, according to the experts at the forum, there are no guarantees with a huge commercial project like this.
We could end up with another urban blight like the Macaulay Precinct in North Melbourne, another eyesore like Gladstone St in Fishermans Bend, another disaster like the Joseph Road precinct in Footscray, or another missed opportunity like the Elsternwick Coles development.
We cannot let this happen.
We must keep our local community’s voice in this development. We must ensure it delivers for the wider community, not just for Coles!
The community’s priorities are for more housing, for renewed supermarkets, for basic facilities like public toilets, for open space, for trees and landscaping.
But more than the basics, we need a development that doesn’t just funnel all of Carlisle Street’s economic activity into Coles. Rather, we need a development that enhances the rest of the shopping strip, securing the viability of our local traders.
To deliver this, we need a new Council willing to advocate for Carlisle Precinct and deliver a development that avoids the pitfalls of the Council’s current hands-off, commercially-led approach.
As councilor, I’ll advocate to cancel the sale of the land. We must use our land holdings to secure a seat at the table with Coles, ensuring the project delivers for our community!
Authorised by J Halliday, PO Box 29, Balaclava
