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20 DECEMBER, 2022
to all our valued readers...
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Merry Christmas (Damjan Janevski) 312203_02
As excited kids across the west eagerly countdown the days until Santa visits, three-week-old Hudson experienced the lead up to his first Christmas sleeping soundly in his brother Mason’s arms, inattentive to the rush of last-minute preparations as the holiday draws closer. As we near the end of 2022, the team at Star Weekly would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and safe and happy New Year. We will return for 2023 on January 10.
Nod for apartment plan By Elsie Lange A controversial plan for a five-storey apartment building in Sunbury town centre has been given the green light by Hume council, despite residents’ concerns about neighbourhood character, car parking and construction impacts. The proposal at 52 O’Shanassy Street for apartments, a basement car park, a cafe or retail premises and offices was originally put to council as a six-storey development at 23 metres, but has since been downgraded to a 19-metre-high form.
When the plan was exhibited in December 2021, 49 objections were received. An officer report to council, which recommended a permit be granted, said the current and future growth of the town would mean the existing town centre “will be required to change and evolve” to meet community needs. “Historically the town centre has maintained a low scale building form however it is anticipated as the town continues to grow that the scale of future development will need to adapt to a taller form and scale,” the report said.
Sunbury resident and practising town planner Robert Szymanski spoke against the proposal at a council meeting on Monday, December 12, and said even the reduced height of the building “simply doesn’t go far enough”. “A more appropriate approach [in Sunbury’s] transition and change would be going to a two-storey element, with a recess third level – so you’re actually seeing from the front a two-storey built form consistent with the surrounding area,” he said. He said he was concerned about the officer report’s description of existing planning policy and guidelines strategy as “outdated”.
“That policy is not outdated … if officers or council are of the view that it’s no longer relevant, they should go through the formal process and actually amend the Hume planning scheme to that effect,” Mr Szymanski said. John Callaghan, owner of Sunbury City Electrical & Electronics on O’Shanassy Street near the proposed development site, also objected at the meeting, saying it would “destroy” the village streetscape, while another resident, Peter Gavin, said the decision proceed it would “create a dangerous precedent”. ■
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Merry Christmas ...may 2023 bring blessings & happiness. 12562672-SN51-22
Sacred Heart College wishes all in the Macedon Ranges and Sunbury communities a peaceful and joyous Christmas.
Sacred Heart College Kyneton
T: 5421 1200 W: www.shckyneton.catholic.edu.au