Brighton locals vow to protect their seaside suburb from ‘Gold Coast high-rises’

5 days ago 6

Brightonians strolling down Church Street to do a spot of shopping at the women’s leather jacket clearance at Siricco before fetching the grandchildren from school on Wednesday had to contend with intruders in their midst.

Reporters had gathered to ask about the Labor government greenlighting high-rise apartments that could turn their famously exclusive village into, as one local put it, the Gold Coast.

Charlotte Warke is opposed to state government development plans in Brighton.

Interest in the views of locals was prompted by the release of draft maps showing proposed state government planning changes allowing residential towers up to 12 storeys tall on Church Street, Brighton, Bay Street in North Brighton, and up to 16 storeys in nearby Hampton.

The reaction was swift and one-sided among residents who denounced the plans as out of character for this famously particular Melbourne suburb, while the council said it had a way of increasing density without putting noses out of joint.

“I think it will cause a bit of disruption,” said talent acquisition specialist Charlotte Warke, who had wandered down Church Street after lunch and was standing in front of local landmark the Dendy Deli.

“The residents don’t want developments happening. I think there’s probably other areas [where] they could do that,” she said.

Rich list philanthropist Patricia Ilhan took to the streets of Brighton last year in protest over an earlier version of the planning laws that allowed for 18-storey towers in local activity zones. She is prepared to do so again.

“I don’t even know where to begin,” said Ilhan, whose lives in a mansion on the Port Phillip foreshore. “There’s no high-rise on Church Street. I think there will be even more resistance and more distaste for Jacinta Allan.

“We are a seaside town, do you think that 12-storey buildings are appropriate for here?” Ilhan asked, distinguishing Brighton from developed suburbs such as South Yarra which were “closer to the city”.

Many residents are not against increased density, but the speed, manner, method and scope of the government announcement, which affects not just Brighton but 25 “train and tram zone activity centres” in middle-ring suburbs near transport links, all earmarked for greater housing density.

Brighton rich lister Patricia Ilhan says there is no appetite for high-rise development in her suburb.

But Brighton has never cared much for goings-on elsewhere. Besides, the Bayside local government trumpeted that it was on track to hit its goal of 30,000 new homes by 2051, as confirmed by this masthead’s analysis in August.

“We are not blockers,” said Bayside Mayor Hanna El Mouallem. “We have been working with our community to deliver on housing targets in appropriate areas. Our job is to ensure that future livability is maintained.

“Increasing density is going to happen. We are delivering.”

He urged the community to get involved in local consultation, but worried that school holidays would overshadow the feedback period.

The mayor also expressed concern that the new planning rules could allow for three- or four-storey dwellings over most of Brighton, where only one- or two-storey homes exist – and that the government was not going to pay for increased amenities the extra residents would need.

“We are hoping the limit goes lower after consultation.”

It was last October when Premier Jacinta Allan, via The Age, wrote an open letter to the residents of Brighton, telling them she was a builder, not a blocker, and promising “gentle density”.

“We can’t lock out young people. Let’s find space in our suburbs and in our hearts for the next generation – and build more homes and more opportunity for everyone.”

A view of Bay Street, North Brighton, where buildings up to 12 storeys are proposed.

Liberal Party member and pro-development YIMBY advocate Ryan Reynolds is one such former Brighton resident who was forced to move away in 2019 after his landlord sold up, and he could no longer afford the area with his young family.

“I don’t see what the big fuss is about,” Reynolds said in reference to the development plans.

He pointed out Brighton was already dotted with quality three- or four-storey residential developments and noted the previous government activity centre announcement was made last year.

“We have done this consultation to death. When is something going to get built?”

The mayor’s family owns The Dendy Deli, and on a blustery Wednesday former Nine executive and president of Collingwood Football Club Jeff Browne sat in one corner and nursed a cappuccino while musing on the impact of the new plans on local traffic. In another, Fergus Watts, the former AFL player and founder and non-executive chairman of Bastion communications, conducted an online meeting.

Further up Church Street, a vigilant waitress at the White Rabbit restaurant shooed away an ABC reporter from interviewing one of her patrons in front of the local Woolworths, where the government will permit a 12-storey development, according to the map.

Mark Gasperino, whose family has lived in the Brighton area for five generations, said Allan was trying to “needle” residents with the proposed changes.

“She doesn’t really care about where people live and what they need … I think it’s very much a political statement, just to annoy people who vote in this area,” he said, glancing over at Middle Brighton train station.

“We just do not have the infrastructure here. We don’t have enough schools [or] parking in all of the backstreets.”

“Everyone’s entitled to live here, that’s no problem. But you can’t just suddenly throw a whole lot of people into the area and impact all of the people who have already been here.”

James Hill, 83, an architect who has lived in Hampton since 1942, said plans for a string of “Gold Coast” high-rises along Hampton Street would be an “absolute disaster”.

“High-rise of even eight storeys - the street would become a dark wind tunnel overcrowded with cars. The environment would be destroyed.”

But Woodards Bayside real estate director Sam Paynter said “six to eight storeys was a reasonable and appropriate development”.

Luxury three-bedroom apartments in the area can sell for between $3 million and $7 million, he said.

“That’s where the market is. That’s what the market wants. The market doesn’t want tiny little one to two-bedroom apartments. And the developers wouldn’t be able to purchase and build them for the price that the market would pay for it.”

Mark Gasperino outside the local Half Moon pub in Brighton.

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