Guy makes play for the sandbelt with two-storey development pledge

Two-storey height limits will be introduced on Melbourne’s foreshore from Mentone to Frankston, if Opposition Leader Matthew Guy is elected premier this month.

Mr Guy went to the marginal seat of Carrum on Thursday morning with candidate Donna Bauer, who lost the seat to Labor in 2014.

It is Labor’s second most marginal seat – held by just 0.7 per cent.

Standing on land next to the Patterson River where there are no mandatory building height limits, Mr Guy said Melbourne’s rapid population growth, combined with a plan to elevate the Frankston railway line as it passed through Carrum meant tough mandatory height limits were needed.

“Labor’s 10-metre-plus high sky rail construction along the Frankston rail line has raised expectations of developers to get inappropriate high-rise approved along the beautiful foreshore areas,” he said.

Mr Guy said the eight-metre height limit – in effect limiting development to two storeys – would stop high-rise projects “for a large swath of our bayside suburbs from the railway to the bay … That means that the residential amenity of these suburbs will be protected.”

The elevated rail plan that Labor has approved running through this part of Carrum, to remove a series of level crossings, would rise above 10 metres at its highest elevation.

“This will set a huge planing precedent along our bayside suburbs for massive overdevelopment that residents do not want and have not thought possible,” Mr Guy said.

Mr Guy was also with local Kingston councillor Geoff Gledhill, running for the Liberal Party in the neighbouring seat of Mordialloc, and Frankston Liberal candidate Michael Lamb.

After a doorstop by the beach to discuss planning and population growth, Mr Guy and the bayside candidates went to local charity Mums Supporting Families In Need in Seaford.

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