Neighbours vs Developers: Inside Melbourne's Ugliest Planning Battles

A rezoning proposal for a 12-storey mixed-use tower on Glenhuntly Road in Elsternwick has drawn more than 340 objections to Glen Eira City Council since lodgement in March, making it one of the most contested planning applications the council has processed in a decade. The developer, seeking approval for 87 apartments above ground-floor retail, argues the site sits within 400 metres of Elsternwick station and qualifies under Victoria's Housing Statement activity centre guidelines. Residents say it will swallow afternoon sunlight from the neighbouring single-storey streetscape and overwhelm a drainage system already under stress.

The clash is hardly unique. Across Melbourne's middle and inner suburbs right now, the same argument is playing out with increasing bitterness — and with Victoria's housing crisis at full pitch, both sides believe time is running out. The state government's Housing Statement, released in late 2023 and progressively embedded into planning schemes through 2025, shifted real power away from local councils toward the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). That change has sharpened the stakes for every objection lodged.

What the Objectors Actually Argue

The Save Elsternwick Streetscape group — a body of about 180 registered members — is not simply arguing against density. Their February submission to Glen Eira Council runs to 47 pages and focuses on three specific technical grounds: inadequate setbacks under Clause 55 of the Victorian Planning Provisions, non-compliance with the Glen Eira Planning Scheme's heritage overlay HO116, and traffic modelling they say understates vehicle movements on Riddell Parade by roughly 30 percent. These are the kinds of arguments that can succeed at VCAT, and the group has retained a planning barrister accordingly.

Similar community groups have mounted technically sophisticated campaigns in Heidelberg, where a proposed 9-storey development on Burgundy Street drew 210 objections to Banyule City Council in May, and in Bentleigh, where residents near Centre Road are contesting a 96-dwelling proposal they argue exceeds the preferred maximum height set out in the Bentleigh Activity Centre Structure Plan. The Bentleigh East Residents Association submitted a peer-reviewed shadow analysis produced by a qualified surveyor — not just a letter-writing campaign.

What unites these groups is a shift in tactics. After years of objections being overturned at VCAT on broad housing need grounds, experienced community campaigners have learned to fight on technical planning law rather than sentiment. "The housing need argument will always beat you if that's all you've got," one planning consultant advising residents groups told this reporter, speaking without attribution. "You have to find the scheme inconsistency."

The Developer and Government Side

Developers and their advocates point to numbers that are hard to dismiss. Victoria's median house price sits at approximately $920,000, with units at $620,000 — figures that represent a near-doubling over a decade and put homeownership beyond reach for a growing share of residents. The state government's own planning data shows Melbourne needs to deliver roughly 70,000 new dwellings per year through to 2051 to keep pace with population growth, yet approvals in the 12 months to March 2026 tracked closer to 48,000.

The Victorian Department of Transport and Planning has made clear that councils which fail to meet their Housing Statement obligations risk having their planning powers suspended — a threat that is no longer theoretical after Boroondara City Council had two local policy amendments rejected by the Minister for Planning in April. For developers, this political environment is an asset. Applications refused at council level are increasingly appealing to VCAT with confidence, knowing the tribunal must weigh acute housing undersupply as a material consideration.

Property Council of Australia's Victorian chapter has argued publicly that objection-driven delays add an average of 14 months to medium-density approvals and inflate project costs by between 8 and 12 percent — costs that, inevitably, flow into final sale prices.

The Elsternwick decision is expected before Glen Eira Council by September. If refused, an appeal to VCAT is almost certain. Residents watching similar battles in Heidelberg and Bentleigh should monitor the VCAT Planning and Environment list, which is publicly searchable, and engage a town planner early — ideally before the formal objection period closes, not after. Council planning departments in Glen Eira, Banyule and Bayside all hold pre-application community information sessions that most residents don't know exist. Showing up to those is, consistently, the most effective first move.