Melbourne's development by tram redux - the 59

In October 2016 when we first kicked off the series of articles looking at the development pipeline along Melbourne's tram corridors, the 59 was first tram out of the depot.

The 59 corridor, except for Elizabeth Street and Flemington Road through the CBD and North Melbourne, runs exclusively within the City of Moonee Valley through Travancore, Ascot Vale, Moonee Ponds, Essendon, Niddrie and Airport West.

Moonee Ponds was and still is an emerging hotspot of development activity with the Moonee Ponds market site a hotbed of construction with a pipeline that will likely keep on keeping on for many years yet - here's looking at you Moonee Valley Racecourse.

The October 2016 snapshot showed 38 projects with 3,201 dwelling across all statuses.  Planning Assessment, Approved and Registration and Sales status had an equal number of projects (10 each) but there was a significant amount of dwellings being assessed - thanks to the market site being before the council at that time.

Fast forward and in terms of the market site in Moonee Ponds - a few trips to VCAT and the Minister's office - those apartments have largely moved from Planning Assessment to the Approved column.

That said, there's still a good amount of dwellings at the start of the journey with 12 projects and 850 dwellings before council.

In terms of construction, the number of projects and number of dwellings is relatively stable with similar figures both for Feb 2018 and October 2016.

Mount Alexander Road (South)

One of the biggest changes since October 2016 has been the number of projects that have cropped up on Mount Alexander Road, south of the Moonee Ponds activities district. 

Previously in October 2016, there was only one project located between the City of Moonee Valley and City of Melbourne council boundary at Flemington Bridge and Moonee Ponds, now there are 6.

The Moonee Ponds activities district has no less than 20 projects and they vary greatly in size from the 30 level, 597 apartment tower that was approved through VCAT at 23 Everage Street to the 5-level, 10-apartment Sur at 53 Homer Street.

Pascoe Vale Road, Fletcher Street, Mount Alexander Road (north)

The short stretch of Pascoe Vale Road and Fletcher Street which the 59 tram runs down sees one more project active in the database since October 2016 and no projects have been logged on Fletcher Street.

Essendon itself, where the tram turns north back on to Mount Alexander Road, has seen a slight reduction in projects compared to October 2016 from 7 projects to 5.

Keilor Road and Matthews Ave

Keilor Road maintains a healthy number of projects thanks to the myriad of development sites afforded to the area. 

As we remarked back in October 2016, this stretch of the 59 tram route has seen significant change and it is set to continue with 6 projects on the database.

Matthews Avenue, right up at the current terminus of the 59 tram has seen its project count expand to 3 from 1.