By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
LANGMORE Lane residents don’t want to see their ‘renowned’ leafy street become a gridlocked traffic hazard any more than it already is.
A three-storey apartment building set to be built at 21 Langmore Lane, Berwick, has been assessed and amended by the City of Casey – leaving both the applicant and local residents up in arms.
Resident of Langmore Lane for 28 years Don Moyes has been back and forth with the City of Casey about the lane’s ‘bottle neck’ and crowded street parking since 2001, and said the pending development will only make it worse.
“They have been given a permit of 33 car spaces for a block of 20 apartments – I’ve worked out with the number of bedrooms a total of 52 cars maximum could reside there – leaving an overflow of 19 cars onto the street,” Mr Moyes said.
Casey mayor Mick Morland explained the council was projecting a maximum of just six cars to spill out onto the street.
“Every bedroom doesn’t have a car and most people will be driving to work during the day and once the Coles supermarket and City of Casey car park is built it will help to relieve congestion in Langmore lane with an extra 80 car parks available around the corner,” Cr Morland said.
The proposed multi-level building was set to house 22 apartments but due to height restrictions the City of Casey approved 20 apartments, 33 car spaces and three visitor car parks.
After the council’s amended proposal, Cr Morland was almost certain the protestors or the applicant would go to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
“I’m 90 per cent sure it will go to VCAT and I’m happy to facilitate a meeting with our senior planners so the protestors have reasonable grounds to argue.
“It is going to be a big unit development and there is going to be an overflow of cars, but if you come here at 7pm at night 90 per cent of the cars parked here during the day are gone,” Cr Morland said.
Concerned residents claim the home owner and developer of the average size building block at 21 Langmore Lane objected to their eight units being built on two acres in 1987.
One local resident used the expression ‘the pot calling the kettle black’. “He didn’t want units in the street back then,” Mr Moyes said.
Now the tables have turned and a total of 71 residents have signed two petitions to stop the 20 apartments going ahead.
“I don’t think there would be an objection if the land was developed with two or even four single-level units, our objection is the number of cars for the amount of units that will line the street which is already full of parked cars,” Mr Moyes said.
Residents claim the street already becomes gridlocked with 10 businesses at the entrance to the lane along with the RSL and linen trucks which frequent the medical centres.
“There’s nowhere to go when the linen trucks come roaring around the corner with parked cars on the road where the street narrows – there could be a fatality,” Mr Moyes said.
Mr Moyes thinks the apartments will look like a concrete block, “which doesn’t match the character of the street,” but Cr Morland argues the apartments will make a wonderful addition to the street.
“I think they will be state-of-the-art so I don’t think they will be affordable for first home buyers,” Cr Morland said.
