By Taylah Eastwell
Upper Ferntree Gully residents are fighting a Knox City Council decision that will see a double-storey medical clinic built next to the Ferny Creek Trail, fearing a car park will be built for the facility over part of the much-loved footway.
Neighbours have vowed to fight the decision, which was approved by council in December last year for 1 Mount View Road, having recently enlisted the help of a planning expert and lawyer ahead of the VCAT hearing.
Knox City Council received 51 objections to the proposal from 47 separate properties.
A fundraiser has been established to fund the fight against the development, having currently raised $1640 of a $5,000 goal.
“Ferny Creek Trail is a ‘wildlife corridor’ in Upper Ferntree Gully next to a National Park. Here are rosella’s, king parrots, kookaburras, eagles, wombats, echidnas in backyards, trees and (the) sky. On green paths cockatoos and wild ducks sometimes greet passers-by,” the Go Fund Me page says.
“Yet this is fast disappearing. A developer wants to place a large ‘Medical Centre’ next door to the Trail. Planning part of the carpark over the trail, destroying the canopy trees, and narrowing the entrance. Many schoolchildren, walkers, bike-riders, families, all ages, use this trail,” it reads.
Ultimately, residents feel they have been misled by council about the application due to the fenceline not being marked in documents, making it unclear that trees were being removed to allow a carpark to be built on part of the trail.
A representative from Save the Dandenong Foothills said “it is our understanding that the development extends to the title boundary which encroaches Ferny Creek Trail.”
“At the Dawson Street entrance of Ferny Creek Trail, the canopy trees on the trail will all be removed,” the representative said.
The issue of increased traffic on the residential street is also a cause for concern among locals.
Dawson Street resident Vicki Toes lives opposite the site and fears looking out at the “monstrosity of a building that is so out of keeping with the area”, saying the street is full of homes from the 1940’s.
“I’m not opposed to a medical centre going there, but does it need 13 doctors, does it need to be double storey?,” she said.
“Apparently they can open 24-hours a day, which isn’t ideal because it’s a residential street. I don’t want to be looking out at bright lights and all the traffic,” she said.
As it stands, Ms Toes already has to look in six directions when leaving her house, with traffic from the Royal Hotel carpark, the two entrances to Maxi Foods supermarket, Mount View Road, the bend coming into Dawson Street and traffic coming down from the traffic lights on Burwood Highway.
“When I reverse out I have to look six ways with traffic as it is now, let alone with a huge medical clinic across the road,” she said.
Ms Toes said 10 people’s objections were missing from the official list of objectors due to issues opening the documents, but this was later corrected.
Residents are also concerned about the loss of trees along the trail and feel they have “no voice” when it comes to developments in Knox.
“You just feel as if you’ve been paying rates forever and you can’t have a say about what goes on in your area. We had a big meeting and they ask for your opinion and then they just do what they wanted to do anyway,” a resident said.
According to a council report, “the development of the proposed medical centre will strike an appropriate balance between providing a well-located essential service, protecting the amenity of nearby residential area and complementing surrounding commercial uses.”
The Go Fund Me can be viewed at https://www.gofundme.com/f/SaveDandenongFoothills
