Nillumbik Council elections in October – call for nominations
Nillumbik Council elections will be held in October 2024.
North Warrandyte is in the Sugarloaf Ward, and is represented by the current Mayor Ben Ramcharan. Ben is a very dedicated, hard-working and responsive representative of the ward. Throughout his tenure, he has been committed to protecting and enhancing the environment and maintaining the biodiversity of the area. Ben has completed nearly four years as Sugarloaf ward councillor and sadly for us, has indicated that he will not be standing for re-election.
Becoming a Councillor is a great opportunity to represent your community and take an active role in maintaining and enhancing the health, wellbeing, culture, environment, biodiversity and planning outcomes for Nillumbik.
Please think about whether you are interested in local government issues and are willing to take this on. Alternatively, you may know of someone who may be a good Councillor, and could suggest this to them.
There are information sessions on July 10 and 18, as described here
Registered voters, who may be State enrolled or Council enrolled, will receive ballot papers in early to mid-October. Voting closes 6pm on 25th October, 2024. The voters’ roll closes 4pm on Wednesday 7th August.
Former WCA President and current Mayor, Carli Lange will again stand for election as the representative for Yarra Ward, which covers Warrandyte in Manningham.
New Domestic Animal Management Plan for dogs and cats
Nillumbik Council is updating its Domestic Animal Management Plan. Before developing policy, Nillumbik Council consults the community on the issue via a survey on their Participate Nillumbik website. The current issue involves how much freedom dogs and cats should have, and the role of Council in this area.
While acknowledging the important social role that dogs and cats play in our lives, they can also have a negative impact on our lives and environment. If you are /or are not a dog or cat owner, a user of local parks or a member of a wildlife/environment group, then you are encouraged to complete the survey. It includes questions re nuisance impact of cats and dogs, curfews, use of ovals for dogs, education, desexing and microchipping, effective control of dogs in public areas, dog on and off-leash areas, barking dogs, cat confinement, and the collection and disposal animal poo. The survey takes at most 10 minutes to complete.
Timeline
Community consultation: 3 June – 14 July 2024
Consolidate findings and commence the Domestic Animal Management Plan 2025-2028: Mid 2024
More information here: https://participate.nillumbik.vic.gov.au/damp-2025
Statewide Housing Targets for 2025 – 53% more houses in Nillumbik and 76% more in Manningham
As part of its plan to encourage more housing in Victoria the State Government has released draft housing targets for local governments so that they can talk about this with councils and community. See details of the targets for Nillumbik and Manningham below. See https://engage.vic.gov.au/shape-our-victoria
Nillumbik Shire Council
2023 – number of existing homes – 22,700
2051 – draft target – an additional 12,000 homes, a 53% increase
Manningham City Council
2023 – number of existing homes – 51,000
2051 – draft target – an additional 39,000 homes, a 76% increaseEach draft housing target was calculated on:
- An area’s proximity to jobs and services
- Level of access to existing and planned public transport
- Environmental hazards like flood and bushfire risk
- Current development trends and places already identified for more homes (like the Suburban Rail Loop Precincts, for example).
Have your say
It is important to provide feedback. There are a number of ways of doing this. Individual survey (25 mainly tick a box questions) See https://engage.vic.gov.au/project/shape-our-victoria/survey/4718#sub-nav
Discussion group within your organisation or community and submission of outcome https://engage.vic.gov.au/project/shape-our-victoria/survey/4935#sub-nav
The timeline
Community consultation open: 22 February 2024
Submissions period: Early July – 30 August 2024
A new plan for Victoria released: Late 2024
Manningham Residential Strategy & Activity Centre Design Guidelines in Warrandyte
Manningham’s Draft Residential Strategy and its Draft Activity Centre Guidelines have been prepared in anticipation of the State Government’s targets.
The major matter of interest for Warrandyte is the proposal to set limits of up to three or four stories for buildings at the Goldfields Activity Centre. This is the centre which currently contains the shops and offices around the IGA, the car wash, the Post office, etc.
While Council’s survey on this proposal has closed we urge residents with views on the proposal to contact the Residential Strategy Project Team to make your views known. Download Here
It may be that current zoning laws set no height limits for Goldfields, so height limits could be a good thing. However, should Goldfields be limited to the height of existing buildings or not? Council’s objective of providing greater housing diversity is laudable, but rezoning won’t necessarily achieve that objective, and given that the area is already a design mess just re-zoning may simply make the mess worse and leave us with development that is completely out of character for Warrandyte.
The WCA has made these points in its initial response to council and intends to make more detailed follow-up submissions.
Can You Help? If you have an interest in these issues and would like to contribute to the WCA’s responses please register your interest by email to: info@warrandyte.org.au
We would particularly welcome contributions from those who might have any planning or urban design expertise.
As part of its ongoing policy development and fact finding the WCA is arranging to hold a discussion session with Manningham Councillor Tomas Lightbody. Tomas is an urban planner by profession. If you would like to attend that session please register you interest at: info@warandyte.org.au. We will let you know the date and location once these are confirmed.
Community Forum. Towards the end of the year we plan to hold a community forum on these issues. Watch out for further details.
Netball Club seeks volunteers
The Warrandyte Netball Club is looking for volunteers to help in a variety of club roles, such as Grants Officer, Registrar and Apparel Manager. If you feel you could help out with these or in any other capacity with the club please contact Kelly Purvis, club Vice President, for further information: M: 0405 270 065
E: vicepresident@warrandytenetball.org