Ferntree Gully Belgrave
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Vale Kevin Marke
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PAGE 21
Tuesday, 16 March, 2021
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PROPERTY GUIDE
‘Skyscraper’ fury By Taylah Eastwell
Ferntree Gully residents are concerned about the impact a proposed development will have on their leafy residential street. ened species when trees are felled. Neighbouring resident Patrick Marrinan said his property backs onto the parcel of land where Glengollan intend to build. “We were all originally contacted by Glengollan saying they have a new prospect for a development directly behind our house,” he said. “We walked into the meeting expecting them to say they are just going to continue
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Knox City Council. “We are not against aged care, we just want to be able to see the mountains. If one building like this is put up, it will set a precedent and they will keep doing it. The street they want to build it on is not set up for it,” he said. Mr Marrinan and other residents hold concerns over fire risk, claiming firetrucks struggling to fit down the narrow street when cars are parked on each side. Continued page 3
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with the village, they are beautiful so it was no issue with us, we just thought we’d go to check it out,” he said. “What we found, however, was that they want to build a facility which looks like a Box Hill building in the middle of Ferntree Gully,” Mr Marrinan said. Mr Marrinan said he and his mum contacted local residents and ended up finding 700 people willing to vote against the development. The oppositions were presented to
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A proposal for a multi-storey development in a Ferntree Gully residential street has left a group of residents “fuming”, with many believing the building will “set a precedent of skyscrapers” and impact on privacy in the foothills suburb. Glengollan Village, a not-for-profit aged care provider with a long history in Ferntree Gully, plans to build a two-storey aged care facility to house 108 residents at 2-8 Saint Elmo Avenue. The group of residents, who have dubbed the double-storey design as the ‘Glengollan skyscraper’, each assured they are not “anti-aged care” however they do not agree with the “bulk” and height of the building proposed in their leafy residential street. Ferntree Gully resident Jordan Bagnoux said the high-rise design shows a “complete disregard for all other neighbouring residents”. “It would be the tallest building in Ferntree Gully, in the middle of a flood and bushfire prone area on a narrow one way street. The building is only metres away from fence lines and the area is protected by the Foothills Policy which means you almost can’t touch a tree and can’t build over 7.5 metres, so it breaks all the usual local building regulations,” Mr Bagnoux said. Mr Bagnoux said the State Government “rushed through a policy to allow nursing homes to disregard all local restrictions, even in the most highly protected spots” in 2018. “I don’t want a balcony with residents and staff looking into our private spaces. I’ve got four young kids and I would rather know who is staring at them while they’re playing in their backyard,” he said. Residents also fear the development will unnecessarily remove vegetation, decrease property prices and block “mountain views”. Others also say they have spotted powerful owls in trees on the block of land and fear losing the integral habitat corridor for the threat-