Sky's Vic Park Newsletter #4: Reconciliation, Millen House, and more bikes
Kaya!
I hope you're all well and enjoying the shift to cooler weather. This edition of the newsletter is a bit of a mixed bag, with updates on what's happening behind the scenes at council; the Reconciliation Action Plan; some ways to get involved locally; recent decisions during the special meeting about the Edward Millen site and the March council meeting; and inspirations from elsewhere.
Behind the scenes
This month has been busy at council. Between the twice-monthly public meetings, workshops and budget discussions, working group meetings, and attending Town events, I have three or four evening commitments most weeks.
As I learn more about council, it's becoming clear that my work is heavily dependent on the mix of elected members. The magic number is five: you need five elected members to get motions passed (apart from on a few issues, where it gets more complicated).
That means that as well as considering the merits of each issue, I also need to understand the values and approaches that other elected members bring to decisions. Learning how to navigate that effectively is still very much a work in progress for me! It's also useful for those of you who want action from council on issues you care about.
Reconciliation Action Plan and Mindeera Spring
Work on the Mindeera advisory group has been exciting, with the launch of the new Reconciliation Action Plan.
As part of this plan, the Town's engineering team have been looking into daylighting Mindeera spring, an important water source for Noongar people that was covered over during colonisation. Mindeera spring is still alive, with fresh water flowing up through drainage pipes, and hopefully in coming years we'll see it become an important part of the riverside again.
Get involved
Thanks to the amazing efforts of local parent Massimo Galardi, Vic Park has its first Bike Bus. If you have kids at Lathlain Primary School, you can join in! And if you're at another local school - well, the race is now on for Vic Park's second Bike Bus!
There are a few grants open from the Town at the moment, including for street parties. You you can also sign up for notifications of relevant grants.
On 8th April, there's Community Grant Expo for small businesses and community groups to meet with representatives from the Town, Lotterywest, Community Impact Hub, Department of Local Sport and Cultural Industries, and KidSport.
Streets Alive will be soon be opening up grants for traffic calming on local streets.
The Beeloo Riding Series is a series of family-friendly rides where you can learn about Nyoongar culture, language and history including places of significance between Derbarl Yerrigan, Dootanboro, and Dhagarro.
Developments at the Edward Millen site
The development at the site of Millen House will have a significant impact on Vic Park. After years of discussion and negotiation, BlackOak put forward their plans for development approval. These include an upgrade to the park area, a community space, a brewery, gelateria, bakery, and childcare centre.
The Town's planning staff made suggestions for changes to the plans submitted, including around a better pedestrian access path and building energy efficiency.
During the special meeting, Cr Anderson successfully moved an amendment to require universal access to the upper floor of the restored heritage building (with all elected members apart from Cr Hamer voting in favour).
I successfully moved an amendment to require parking spots for six cargo bikes close to the entrance to the daycare (as the submitted plans had the closest bike parking beyond the carpark), with the support of all elected members.
These suggestions will now go to the WA state-level development panel, which will decide on conditions for approving the project.
March Ordinary Council Meeting: many reports, limited controversy!
During this meeting council accepted reports from the Mindeera advisory group, the Urban Forest working group, and other working groups. There were also several audit reports submitted (most of them not publicly available). Item 14.3 covers aspects of the budget for the year ending June 2024.
In Item 12.1, the Perth Cricket Club and Victoria Park Carlisle Bowling Club were put forward as our first- and second-rated priorities for Community Sport and Recreation Facilities Fund (CSRFF) grants.
Item 13.1 allows the Town to advertise the proposed closure of Claude St in Burswood to allow the amalgamation of two lots for a new development, potentially a data centre.
Item 13.2 will allow the Town to advertise 4 Temple St for rent for a community purpose, as it is being vacated by the Child Health centre. (This premises has accessibility issues, which we asked about in the last Agenda Briefing Forum: there's a limited budget to remedy these problems.)
As always, if you have questions about items that came up in the meeting please do let me know!
Inspiration from elsewhere
Vancouver's new mega-development is big, ambitious and undeniably Indigenous - Macleans.ca
In B.C., Indigenous nations are reclaiming power and wealth for their own citizens—no matter what the neighbours think
There's an amazing new development planned for Vancouver: "Sen̓áḵw, an 11-tower development that will Tetrize 6,000 apartments onto just over 10 acres of land in the heart of the city. ... Sen̓áḵw is big, ambitious and undeniably urban—and undeniably Indigenous." Because this is on Squamish First Nation reserve land, it doesn't need to meet zoning requirements. It's "being designed as a car-lite minimal parking development with roughly 600 vehicle parking stalls for 6,000 residents, with an emphasis on transit and active transportation including a transit hub, new bus stops and thousands of secured bike parking spaces."
Paris is also working towards the rapid provision of more affordable housing. Ian Brossat, the deputy mayor for housing at Paris City Hall, has described plans to repurpose office buildings, change zoning regulations, convert parking garages, as part of a mission "to ensure that those who work in Paris can live there".
A new report models the massive environmental, social, and economic benefits that could come from replacing around 20% of kilometres traveled by car with active transport. Paris is showing what this looks like in practice: the city has managed to double cycling numbers within a year!
This episode of the Green Urbanist discusses the development of Net Zero Neighbourhoods, looking at ways to balance energy use across different businesses, including data centres.
Medellin's Green Corridors project "demonstrates how integrated, nature-based policies like widespread urban tree planting can have a far-reaching impact on the local and global environment, as well as significantly improving citizens’ lives and well-being."
We are all connected
While the focus of this newsletter is local, the local is always connected to the global. If you can afford to donate to the UNRWA or WFP, their work is urgently needed right now. If you have time to spare, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network has suggestions for actions you can take across anything from two minutes to two weeks.
That's all folks!
Thanks for reading! As always, I encourage you to get in touch if there's anything you want to ask about or discuss.
best wishes,
sky.
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