Monash University fears SRL plans for housing, office space will swallow high-tech hub
The CSIRO also fears the eastern suburbs underground rail line will interfere with its sensitive research equipment at the Monash Technology Precinct when it opens in 2035, according to concerns it outlines in one of more than 600 public submissions published on Friday night.
The Suburban Rail Loop Authority released draft plans in March outlining how suburbs along the $34.5 billion rail line would be drastically reshaped with high-rise housing and new office space.
The Allan government says SRL East will enable 70,000 extra homes to be built around stations at Box Hill, Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, Burwood and Cheltenham, and shift employment away from Melbourne's CBD.
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In its response to the draft structure plan and draft planning scheme amendments, Monash University says that it welcomes the train connection to its Clayton campus but fears the transformation plan could hinder its Monash Technology Precinct.
The precinct is already Melbourne's largest employment hub outside the CBD and home to institutions including the CSIRO, the Australian Synchrotron, the Victorian Heart Hospital and the Moderna mRNA vaccine plant.
But Monash says the SRL's Monash precinct plan has a 'core focus on housing' – with a goal to increase dwellings from 3900 to 8300, and residents from 10,000 to 17,900, by 2041 – and also forecasts significant growth in general office space.
Both could hinder Monash's development and risk 'cannibalising land' for uses unrelated to the research precinct, the university says, while also expressing concerned the Suburban Rail Loop Authority has earmarked university land as 'strategic sites' for development without its agreement.
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