Council housing vote

KNOX mayor David Cooper has thrown his support behind a Ferntree Gully social housing project despite serious community concerns.
The State Government recently announced it would build 87 three and two storey social housing units on the former Ferntree Gully Primary School site.
The Mail last week reported Ferntree Gully Salvation Army’s Major Merv Lincoln, Baird Ward councillor Peter Cole and La Trobe MP Jason Wood were concerned the Dorset Road development could become a ghetto in the Gully, already riddled with social issues.
But Cr Cooper had no concerns for the site and dubbed it ‘a big coup for Knox’.
The mayor grew up in a 1000-home housing commission estate in Burwood.
Cr Cooper said: “From the day my parents brought me home to the age of 22, I never once witnessed any crime, social unrest or incidents of vandalism and graffiti. It was a great community.”
Knox councillors will tonight (Tuesday 22 September) vote on a report to the State Government detailing their thoughts on the planning application.
But planning minister Justin Madden will have the final say on the project’s future after the State Government changed planning laws to take advantage of Federal Government stimulus cash.
The cash comes with strict deadlines regular planning processes cannot meet. Cr Cooper downplayed anger that the State Government had rushed the development through without community consultation.
“In this case, there is a time limit,” he said.
“But the State Government has come to see us, the representatives of the people.”
Cr Cooper said he had inspected site plans, and it was one of the best medium density developments he had seen.
“In my opinion, it’s quite a positive development,” he said.
“It sits very much in what we’ve been looking for in social housing.”