Thank you for sharing your feedback to help finalise our Urban Design Advice (UDA) for the Surrey Hills level crossing removal project. We received 39 online survey responses, as well as feedback through email and social media, during our community consultation in November and December 2021.

What you told us

The majority of people who completed the survey supported the draft document. Around half of these people also said that more thinking is needed around the Sunbury Crescent area.

Some of the key themes we heard during the consultation include:

• There is very strong support for the development of new open space on Union Road.
• There is support for a 15-metre-wide deck across the rail trench.
• The community want to keep the lush, green nature of the area. They would prefer canopy trees to provide shade and landscaped garden beds with native plants.

We also heard your concerns around the Department of Transport’s Box Hill to Hawthorn Strategic Cycling Corridor (SCC), which would possibly travel along Sunbury Crescent.

Some of the main community concerns include the:

• impact this would have on the liveability and quiet enjoyment of the street
• impacts to greenery and the loss of the vegetation screening along the rail line
• safety of all road users at the Sunbury Crescent and Robinson Road intersection.

Final Urban Design Advice

Based on feedback during community consultation, we have revised and finalised our UDA.

The UDA includes:

• public open space on Union Road with accessible, well designed and flexible areas for the whole community to enjoy. This includes capacity to host events and markets, places to sit and relax, and more greenery
• 15-metre-wide decking across the rail trench to connect the north and south sides of the shopping centre and create more useable open space
• feedback that any planning of the Department of Transport’s SCC to the west of Union Road needs to be completed in consultation with the community and Council. We have taken out the reference to the SCC possibly travelling along Sunbury Crescent from the UDA.

The final UDA was presented to Council on 28 February 2022. Council adopted the UDA with no changes.

What happens next

We will now give the UDA to the Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP) and other stakeholders. We will also continue advocating for our community’s preferences to be included in the LXRP's final designs of the new open space.

To further support our community’s preferences, we have offered the Victorian Government $2 million towards the overall $4 million cost to build the 15-metre-wide decking across the rail trench. We have asked the Victorian Government to match our funding to deliver this important connection and open space opportunity for the local community.