Randomness 19

I need to get out more. I also need to update this bitch more, but I'm too damn lazy.

Anyway: random ranting time.

I am officially not in love with Watergardens as much as I was previously, currently anyway. For one, the shopping centre expansion isn't even finished yet despite having been open for four weeks now. Two, the interior is too tacky. Three, Westrans has already withdrawn services from the former shopping centre interchange, meaning access from the station to the shopping centre is shithouse at the moment.

Route 461 is okay, but it is indirect, and I hate loops. I want to run it along Community Hub instead of Catherine Dr and split it into two routes (461 along Hume Dr, 462 via Community Hub) in both directions. Its frequency is adequate for its purpose and current patronage level, but both my 461 and 462 should be every half-hour.

Add to that route 460 is too indirect for my liking considering it could be a major route. The deviation through the backstreets of Sydenham is stupid and should be a local route (463, every 30 minutes). 460 can then run direct along Melton Hwy and Gourlay Rd, and should be progressively upgraded to every 15 minutes.

That'll do; enough ranting. ;)

Randomness 14

I've hardly done any gunzelling in the last two weeks, apart from taking a few photos while randomly driving, at on Monday at Heidelberg station while waiting for my mother to get out of a job interview.

Uni in five weeks, yay. I really want a massive bitch of a skyscraper to start getting built in Footscray right now, to cure my boredom for a year or so. :P

Randomness 5

I went to Rockbank yesterday, finally. The station itself sucks. It's useless, and I wouldn't want to wait there for more than the half hour I did. I have now been to all stations except Flemington Racecourse, and all stations between Leawarra and Morradoo.

Here goes a random partly-sensical rant about activity centres around me, mixed with some more gunzelling.

I also went to Sunshine yesterday for no real reason. Well, I did have a reason sort of. I decided to randomly do a photographic tour, which involved taking the longest possible route between Sunshine and Albion on foot. I realised that Sunshine has tremendous amounts of open and underutilised, and therefore developable, space.

Due to a lack of low-density housing surrounding the core activity centre, Sunshine could easily accommodate taller (ten to twelve storey) buildings without much of a problem. But I already knew that anyway. It just seems more surreal to actually look at the whole centre specifically in terms of development space.

So, I eventually got to Albion station, opposite which there is a massive (unused?) flour mill, which would look completely awesome if it was converted into apartments. I was thinking of how a possible redevelopment of that one building would fit in with Melbourne 2030, and I came to the conclusion that it's a perfect example, and is also in a perfect location:

• It preserves the early-20th century heritage-listed building
• It's right next to a train station and a few bus routes
• Nearby residents couldn't complain about the height of the building, because it's been there the whole time (this is actually an important point in my opinion, considering how anti-development people in Brimbank, unlike me, tend to be)

So anyway, I got on a train back to Sunshine, and decided to randomly ride route 454 from end to end and return (which I did without getting off the bus - that's how tragic I am). I took some more photos of Sunshine, this time on the western side of the train line, before getting on a train to Sydenham.

Sydenham (in particular around Watergardens) isn't much of a principal activity centre at the moment, despite being a Transit City. Something worth noting, though, is the level of development that is now under construction and/or approved. Sydenham is going through a construction boom (of sorts) right now, including a new "Learning Centre" and a large shopping centre expansion. It is eventually going to have a town square linking the shopping centre to the train station. So, after taking a couple of photos, I got the 421 to Centro Keilor.

Centro Keilor is just an everyday supermarket-based shopping centre. No real description is required for that reason. I transferred to route 418, to St Albans.

St Albans is a major activity centre. It's very busy, and has significant numbers of people arriving by public transport (although also significant amounts of car traffic). I wasn't there for very long. Just long enough, in fact, to walk from the Alfrieda St bus terminus to the train station, to buy a Sunday Saver, and then get on the 423 a few minutes later.

Route 423 goes through Cairnlea, one of Vicurban's flagship "sustainable" suburbs. The only problem is, Cairnlea only has a single bus route which runs every 40 minutes on weekdays, every hour on Saturdays, and not at all during evenings or on Sundays. True sustainability (I assume) would include reducing reliance on cars, which certainly hasn't happened. But enough about that.

I got to Brimbank Central, which is currently the largest shopping centre in Brimbank (but is going to be overtaken by Watergardens very soon). It is nominated as a major activity centre, and will eventually have the Green Orbital Smartbus running through it. I had lunch there, while thinking about how PT to it should be improved. It would involve running at least routes 423 and 451 on Sundays.

But, enough compulsive ranting for now. Main points for today:

• Sunshine should get lots of high rise buildings. It's in a perfect location
• West Sunshine (particularly around Glengala Rd) is a hole, and should disappear from the face of the earth
• Shopping centres in Brimbank are too small, and should be massively expanded
• I think I'm a bus gunzel......

From This Side Of Suburbia

Gotta love the local rag, purely for hearing about proposed developments. From this week's Brimbank Leader (poor-quality photo of the proposal is here):

Tower plans before council
Kylie Skotnicki
23 May, 2006

AFTER months of speculation and heated debates in council meetings, plans for the three Sunshine tower blocks have been lodged with Brimbank Council.

The plans, submitted by LPD Corporations, are for a 12-storey office tower and 11 and eight-storey residential towers on the corner of Harvester and Foundry roads.

The residential towers will include 180 independent living units for over-55s, with one, two and three bedrooms.

These will be provided by a non-profit agency, which the developers are now seeking tenders for.

The ground levels of the three towers will offer 36 retail stops, with car parking above the shops. The developers aim to get community service and government organisations as tenants in the office block.

"There's been a number of plans that have been floated, but this plan is the final plan," LPD Corporations spokeswoman Fiona Darwin said.

"We have discussed some plans with council that have been taller, some that have been lower, but this in the end is what the developers are going ahead with."

Ms Darwin said one reason behind the towers was the developers identifying a lack of quality aged-care services in the area.

Harvester Ward councillor Sam David said he would welcome accommodation of this sort in Sunshine. "We haven't got anything like this and it would be a wonderful thing to have accommodation for the elderly," he said.

"Our city is aging very fast," he said.

"It is something that we need very badly that we haven't got yet."

Mayor Natalie Suleyman said highrise developments in Sunshine were fine as long as the location was appropriate.

"It's part of growth. It is inevitable at the end of the day. We as a community need to look at rejuvenating and making sure that we are feasible in the future," she said.

Cr Suleyman said there would be "extensive public consultation before council makes any decision".

Ms Darwin also said residents would be consulted, adding: "We intend to be open with the community about this development. This is a quality development for Sunshine and we as a developer have nothing to hide with this project." Ms Darwin contacted the Sunshine resident and Ratepayers Association via its website early last week to arrange a meeting.

The association's Brian Carroll said he would reserve judgment on the development until he had seen the plans. He said he hoped the "consultation" talked about by the developer and Cr Suleyman was genuine, where the other parties would take on board resident's concerns.

"I've got nothing against this type of housing, but it all comes back to consultation," Mr Carroll said.

A discussion on the development will be held at 7pm, June 8, at Victoria University Sunshine, with project team members to answer questions.

Now, gotta love highrise developments, especially being so close to me. And in a place that I go to regularly! My height estimates would be 50 metres for the office tower, 35 metres for the 11-storey tower and 25 metres for the 8-storey tower.

Hmm, now hopefully it gets approved. :D

Things I love 1

One of the things I love about suburbia is the amount of retail expansion that takes place. For example, I went to Highpoint today, where a major expansion that will add some 60 shops and 15000m² of retail space, is occuring.

Highpoint, one of Melbourne's largest shopping centres, possibly the largest, is located in the suburb and City of Maribyrnong, and is relatively easy to get to by public transport even on weekends (compared to other major shopping centres, like Doncaster Shoppingtown, anyway), since there are a few fairly frequent routes running to it from Footscray:

• bus 223, which runs every 15 minutes on Saturday and every 30 minutes on Sunday until midnight.
• bus 406, which runs every 20 minutes on Saturday and every 70 minutes on Sunday, but not in evenings (except on Thursday and Friday).
• tram 82, which runs every 15 minutes on Saturday until about 7pm then every 20-30 minutes until 11:30pm, and every 15 minutes on Sunday until about 7pm then every 30 minutes until 8:30pm.

But say I wanted to get a bus from Sunshine instead. I'd have a choice of a single bus route, the 408, which runs every 30 minutes until about 6pm on Saturday and not on Sunday. Not really the best service span, but the frequency is reasonable when it does run.

I've often wondered whether Highpoint could justify having a train line running to it. Considering its principal activity centre status under Melbourne 2030, and the amount of traffic the centre gets (which is in the tens of millions every year) and the patronage of the route 82 tram between Footscray and Highpoint, it could probably work. I think that the best option would be to extend the Flemington Racecourse line, which could then also serve Victoria University's largest campus, which is only 800 metres away from Flemington Racecourse, and would also introduce a full-time service to the Showgrounds.

Having a train station at (or under) Highpoint would definitely be a good long-term option, especially if the retail group and/or council and/or government want to increase public transport usage to the centre. In the mean time, weekend service frequencies on tram route 82 should be upgraded to every 10 minutes during the day and every 15 minutes in the evening, so every train departing Footscray on the weekend is met by a tram. I know I for one would definitely use trams more often, and I imagine a large number of others would, especially considering much of the centre's traffic comes from the western suburbs.