Council welcomes the announcement today of more detail on the next stage of the Suburban Rail Loop project and the three station locations in the municipality.
The State Government has announced $2.2 billion for initial and early works on Stage One of the project. Works will start in 2022, enabling launch sites to be established for tunnel boring machines in Melbourne's south east.
The funding will purchase land, upgrade roads and power supply, build new sub-stations, relocate and protect gas, water and other utilities, and deliver other works to prepare for major construction.
This is a significant project with three stations in Monash at Clayton, Monash University and Glen Waverley, recognising the importance of Monash as a thriving and economically significant community and in particular the significance of the Monash National Employment and Innovation Cluster.
Mayor Brian Little said the project presented a fantastic opportunity to realise and build on the strategic planning work already undertaken by Council in the Clayton and Glen Waverley activity centres.
"This presents an opportunity to further transform these centres, to improve the public spaces where people gather and to encourage investment in two of our major activity centres," Cr Little said.
"We are working with government to understand the detail of this announcement. We need to understand what funding is being provided to assist in future planning processes and the provision of additional infrastructure that we anticipate will be required to meet the expected growth around the new Suburban Rail Loop stations.
"We welcome the development of the rail loop as a major infrastructure investment for the state. However, Council also recognises that the SRL stations will be a catalyst for increased development around the station hubs and is concerned how it is expected to fund the additional demand on its services."
Council is also keen to work with the government to minimise impact on local businesses during the construction phase and to ensure they are fully consulted and supported during the project.
"This is a 10-year project and, whilst transformative in the long term, the impact of construction around these centres will be significant. It's critical that our local businesses, who have already been impacted upon by lockdown due to COVID, are adequately supported and the impact minimised as much as possible during the construction phase," Cr Little said.
The Suburban Rail Loop will link every major railway line from Frankston to Werribee via the airport. Stage one is Cheltenham to Box Hill taking in stations at Clayton, Monash University and Glen Waverley.
Council has three inter-related projects within the Glen Waverley Activity Centre that are likely to be impacted by the preferred station location and associated works including:
- •The detailed design for a mixed use multi-level car park at 31-39 Montclair Avenue
- •The Kingsway Streetscape Renewal works (the design for which was planned to commence following completion of the mixed use multi-level carpark)
- •The marketing and sale of Council-owned properties at 14 Bogong Avenue and 155 Coleman Parade, Glen Waverley.
Council is looking closely into the information released in the announcement by the State Government and working with government on the anticipated impacts of these projects.
