Labor to force more high density onto Box Hill
The Labor Party has signalled it will push big increases in population and high density development in and around Box Hill if it wins this year’s Federal election.
Yesterday, Bill Shorten’s Shadow Infrastructure Minister, Anthony Albanese, announced that Labor plans to turn Box Hill into a second CBD by having Federal, State and local governments “get behind” strong population growth and attract more residents as part of an “urban renewal project”.
This comes at the same time as the state Labor government moves to extend high density development zones and weaken residential height limit protections right across Melbourne.
It’s appalling that the Labor Party is again trying to force inappropriate high rise, high density developments into ordinary residential streets, destroying neighbourhood amenity and quality of life.
It’s also appalling that Mr Albanese can simply fly in from Sydney, make an announcement like this without any consultation, and then fly out again, leaving the community to suffer the consequences.
Future growth and development in and around the Box Hill activity centre needs to be carefully planned and decided under proper processes, and without taking away the rights of the local community.
To add insult to injury, Mr Albanese also tried to show Labor’s support for redeveloping the Box Hill transport interchange by promising a modest $100,000 in funding.
However, the state Labor government has done little about improving the interchange since it was elected, and scrapped the work and consultations started in 2014 by the former state Coalition government.
The Box Hill transport interchange needs upgrading, and the Andrews government needs to get on with it. However, Labor should not be using the transport interchange as an excuse for pushing high rise, high density development across Box Hill.
For the full text of Federal Labor’s announcement, see http://bit.ly/23grjt9.