The case for a Kensington precinct plan

Iconic precincts are never “planned”, they evolve. Those who have been privileged to travelled to London, Istanbul, Rome, Hanoi, Tehran or any other ancient city, know an iconic place when they savour one. 

Such places have history and unique ambience, but nobody set about with an intention to “create” them. At a certain point in their evolution someone with foresight, historical sensibility and community power must have said, “hang on a minute, this place needs to be conserved and enhanced!” What places in our neck of the woods are on that iconic trajectory? Or have they already arrived? 

Kensington Village and the Bellair St locale would certainly be one of those with evolving ambience. What we need is that special “someone” who says “hang on a minute!”; the “vision thing” then comes into play.

During the past 20 years the Kensington Association has been party to campaigns to protect Kensington Village. We and many other individuals have been saying “hang on a minute” on behalf of our community; traffic issues have been a very significant aspect of those campaigns. Cars and trucks, particularly at speed, are the surest way to thwart the evolution of any community ambience. At this moment in history, we are at a fork in the road. There are initiatives and regulations suggesting that we (in the wider urban community) need to move away from a car culture, so that, for example, more cars (as a transport option) are shared rather than owned. If we take this fork, transport will be of smaller scale, and person-powered or battery-powered; heavy transport will need to be funnelled along primary routes. Gradually we can see the “vision thing” come into play – Kensington from the top of the hill along Macaulay Rd up to Boundary Rd in North Melbourne becomes a people precinct, fed by public transport and characterised by bikes, scooters, pedestrians, small electric vehicles, and enough green open space to feed the souls of residents. 

Dream on mate! Dream on! It won’t happen! Unless … unless what? Unless there is a “precinct plan” for this unique stretch of road in Kensington, which takes development away from what Cr Rohan Leppert calls the “choose your own adventure” attitude of developers, and puts in the hands of those who are able to plan more holistically with community needs at the forefront of their thinking.

Why is this part of Macaulay Rd unique? First, it is served by two stations less than 500m from one another and an east-west 402 bus service; so, it caters for people. Second, there is no other short stretch of road in metro Melbourne (that I know of) that is so constrained by what (I am led to believe) are unremovable rail crossings, so it can’t become an efficient car thoroughfare. Third, both sides of Macaulay Rd between the two railway crossings have large land holdings which are becoming development sites, and which border onto established, low-rise, heritage protected residential areas.

There are at present some good signs and bad signs in relation to what might transpire along Macaulay Rd. Frankly the “bad signs” are ominous. What we see happening along Boundary Rd between Macaulay and Racecourse roads and the rail line (where there are also big land holdings) is opportunistic adventurism by developers, as they push built-form controls to somehow rationalise 12 storey buildings. This is happening for two reasons: First, because there are holes in planning rules that you can “drive a bus through”, and second, because there is not even a pretence of a precinct plan. These are bad signs, if that ruthlessness and lack of foresight is duplicated along Macaulay Rd, it will be a recipe for gridlock. 

There are, however, some (small) good signs. The City of Melbourne (CoM is very much in favour of establishing bicycle lanes all the way down Macaulay Rd (I’m not sure how that would work across the Moonee Ponds Creek Bridge). At least this is indicative of a movement toward the prioritisation of human-scale transport. Secondly, (I hear on the grapevine) that the CoM is negotiating with the developers of the Webb Warehouse (402 Macaulay Rd) to include some community infrastructure in the site plan. Maybe that’s routine, I don’t know because I’m no expert, but it’s good. What I would say, however, in the strongest possible terms, is that similar and more extensive negotiation, in the form of pre-emptive planning, needs to happen right now in order to formulate a precinct plan which can guide future development along Macaulay Rd. Hoping that this can happen is not “pie in the sky”. A precinct plan would give the community and developers certainty and clarity, it would support the evolution of Kensington as an iconic precinct, and forestall incremental moves towards Macaulay Rd becoming a horrible, traffic congested thoroughfare •