By Alesha Capone
Residents have raised concerns about over-development, traffic congestion and road safety following a proposal to build seven-double storey houses across two lots in a Point Cook street.
Wyndham council is set to consider the proposal, for 1 and 3 Nagle Drive, at a planning meeting tonight.
A total of 125 people have signed a Change.org petition against the proposal.
The council has also received 16 objections to the planning permit, although the application was exempt from public consultation.
Resident Irfan Ahamed said the original plan for the Nagle Drive site was for two dwellings to be constructed on the 892 square metre block, but that later changed to seven dwellings.
He said seven dwellings could have “a significant impact” upon a children’s climbing park and recreational walking paths located opposite the proposed development.
Mr Ahamed said he and other residents are also worried the additional traffic generated by the development could cause a “safety hazard” in Nagle Drive, which he described as a narrow road used by many drivers.
“This particular road, being a narrow arterial road with major children’s play area nearby, will result in increasing traffic hazard risks and more congestion and also negatively impact the neighborhood character,” he said.
“Being an arterial road without a designated pedestrian crossing, the concern is that when lots of cars are parked on the road (from the new units), they will block the visibility for traffic as kids walk out from behind the parked cars.”
Mr Ahamed said that already, Nagle Drive is “ so narrow that if a car is parked on the road, the cars have to wait behind the car to give way to oncoming traffic”.
“There are no parking restriction signs as well.
“Already rubbish trucks have faced challenges in these narrow streets when the cars are parked on both sides of the street.”
Mr Ahamed said the residents were not opposed to development, but that “multi-subdivided buildings in an area of 892 square metres without adequate space has the potential to bring hazards and negatively affect the character and the community of our area and its residents”.
He said that if the council approves the plan to build seven double-storey houses, “it will likely pave way for more such congested multi-storey dwellings in the adjacent vacant sites using this approval as precedent”.
The agenda for tonight’s council meeting states council officers have recommended that permission for the development be granted, subject to several conditions, including that it complies with the Garden Area Requirements of the Wyndham Planning Scheme’s General Residential Zone.
