A happy medium

I WRITE in response to the letter Developers Rule by John Feehan (Gazette, 16 November).
There seems to have been a consistent push over the past two council terms for developers to get out of providing vital infrastructure such as car parking, footpaths and traffic lights just to name a few, to the detriment of the community.
A good example is the experience in Main Street Pakenham a couple of years ago when council relocated the old municipal office from the centre of town.
The council allowed for the intensive development of that corner with two storey shops. There was already nowhere to provide the parking on site so council, in its wisdom, shifted the parking requirement and with negotiation got the developer to pay a cost to council and in the process contribute to the parking behind the public hall.
Now we needed the hall car park sealed, but at what benefit to shoppers?
We cannot stop development, we know that, but what we can do though is have input into how and what development occurs and how it impacts on our community and how we can regulate it and monitor it.
To me the situation is simple; we should be encouraging well planned sustainable development that incorporates ecologically sound engineering practices that meets community expectations through thorough community consultations.
Any applications for reduced parking, or over development of sensitive areas, or inappropriate over developments of sites must be sent back to the drawing boards.
We must not allow the focus to drift away from community. If we do we will continue to have local residents left disaffected, cynical, powerless and the repercussions on our community are going to be huge.
Cheryl Billing-Smith,
Pakenham.