27 April 2024
So the YIMBY (yes in my back yard) group was in The Age today complaining about the heritage listing of a church in Thornbury, saying that it will mean less housing, which wont help affordability. Firstly, its not a very nice church, but every old church has some historical significance for some group. I can understand the logic of heritage =restrictions =less housing= less affordability, but I havnt seen evidence that just allowing more development would make anything cheaper. The YIMBY website is rather sophisticated, full of links to research, with the title ‘People-led. Grassroots. For housing abundance. Funded by members’. Their section on heritage says its a “vital part of our cities, but with overlays being increasingly weaponised to block housing, bad faith actors have begun reshaping heritage overlays into a tool to lock people out of the most amenity-rich areas”- rather strong words ! Which links to a video of a Merri-bek Council meeting where ex-greens Councillor James Conlan mumbles something like ‘heritage is the main tool we have to control development” – more of a plea than a weapon. They also want planning restrictions generally lifted, for instance allowing 6 storeys within 1k of a train station, citing research that “planning restrictions inflated home prices in Melbourne by 20%”. Im pretty sure that for instance allowing the demolition of all the Victorian era shopping strips wouldn’t make much difference to prices – I doubt if there is a solution to affordability with so many factors including big population growth, interest rates, tax structures, housing upscaling, and the upper income brackets getting improbably wealthier.
This post got 61 comments, here’s a selection :
love.this.city.melbourne I live in a house that’s had a heritage overlay recently put on it. I have mixed feelings about it. It seems like my council let most of the bungalows get knocked down for apartments in my street then decided they had to act to protect the remaining houses. I don’t have a problem with the apartment developments in my area as it’s blossomed with the new wave of younger occupants. Before my house was built in 1928 it would have been farm land
riyainnaarm_ Demolishing the station-adjacent shopping strips does exactly the opposite of encouraging development – you need those shops to grow community by putting facilities in a common, easily accessible area. Just look at all the new builds in the outer suburbs that are just rows and rows of houses with not even a Colesworth between them. You are forced to drive just to get a little snack! I know we’ve long moved past the days of a development springing around a pub, but a pub also brought shops and business, and it’s one of those small things that improve standard of living manifold. (Ironically, I am a Merri-bek resident!)
sambassadorofsydney I have become exhausted by the antagonism between heritage advocates and pro-housing (YIMBY) activists. It makes it much harder to either support good development or oppose inappropriate development because the waters are now so thoroughly muddied. Then if one expresses a well-thought-out idea in a comments section, one is personally attacked and denounced by some random stalwart anti-development protest hack, or worse, mansplained to by some urban planning undergrad with a pro-development YouTube channel. So much energy is being wasted on this further polarised debate. All those with an interest in making our cities more affordable and welcoming, with improved amenity and heritage well preserved must join forces. Sadly, while folks bicker, government wrests development control and overrides everyone so that in the end the developers get carte blanche. We bicker amongst ourselves to our cities’ peril.
adeledelsi If YIMBYs want to tackle housing affordability they need to push the banks, pretty much all of them won’t lend for properties that are under 40m2, so really only investors or people with large sums of cash can buy out all those little one bedroom and studio flats. That would be a better place to concentrate efforts. And look at smarter small unit builds… they don’t need to be hot dog boxes anymore… Much quicker and better option than trashing our built heritage. I’m definitely on team HIMBY.😊
mainichidesign My grandparents were married in that church. The family all lived around Preston, Northcote, Westgarth. While it might not be attractive, there are still stories attached. And interesting that it is on the High Street.
mikeybikemike What i love reading here and the age comments is about “the church” and how much land they own and how little taxes they pay. Most of these churches was bought developed and built by small local communities that sacrificed their savings to create a house of god that only gave back to the community. Get out of your heads that these congregations were big corporations or organisations. The large church organisations didnt pay for them yet reap the rewards of the sale. These buildings should be converted to community housing or outreach support programs.
irisdemont83You just know they’d love to turn all of Melbourne into Docklands lol
isidisplanitia Have been trying to explain to these folks what heritage overlays do and don’t mean … seemingly a lot of misconceptions out there.
_indefinitearticle_Those YIMBYs are probably a front for developers 🙄 They’re not interested in affordable housing, just easy profits
jamesinsta_2021 Imagine some of what they are proposing – 6 storey apartments 1km around all stations. Say goodbye to Tara Estate Camberwell and most of the grandest surviving heritage homes and commercial buildings in Victoria. Or at least due to limitations of protection to internal fabric unless its state listed – facadism galore. Lose, lose either way.
morit_one housing affordability is about supply not heritage. It’s about using housing as a vehicle for investment. It’s about wealthy folk hoarding shit other people need, creating scarcity and increasing its price. These people would see all restrictions and standards destroyed in the name of ‘affordability’ but the only people that would benefit would be property developers and investors. Make house hoarding illegal. You have one body. It only needs one house.
Storey of Melbourne 