chloed6

I'm from a big city overseas and I've lived in Richmond for three years. I love that Richmond has a lot of things that I took for granted back home. You will always find open shops and bars here, you never have to check the train timetable, there will be one within 5 minutes to wherever you want to go. Residents are always respectful of each other. Thanks to local council rules for non-residents we never had trouble finding parking. The number of eateries and bars nearby have been increasing both in quality and quantity. And despite all the hustle and bustle, if you avoid living near major strips it's actually very quiet at night. But Richmond is becoming a commercial centre and residents are being left behind.

Having grown up in a small apartment in a country where land comes at a premium price, I am not one of those people who think apartments are a bad, or dislikes anything new. But in Richmond it's happening at a crazy pace, and it doesn't seem to be planned from a resident's quality of life point of view.

I live near Burnley street which the quiet, residential end of Richmond. When we hired our little town house there was no sign of a new development in the area. But in the span of a few months, things have changed and we had construction noise and dust in our house for more than a year. The streets have been marked "work zone", which massively congested the parking. On top of that, some 20+ builders park their car on our street every morning. When parking is so difficult people start to become passive aggressive and it's not unusual to see angry notes left on windscreens. Our little street is regularly closed to oncoming traffic because there are cranes and massive trucks coming in and out. All this hustle and bustle happened just while building a few apartments.

Now there are a number of large commercial properties being applied for and approved in the area. Cremorne is particularly bad. There are plans to build a 7-storey building in 60-88 Cremorne Street, a new development on 79 Green st holding 85 people every night with music and alcohol until midnight, an eight story commercial building at Church and Balmain, a new commercial tech hub that will house 800 seek.com employees and more apartments. In my area, there is an application for a 9-storey commercial building near Burnley and Neptune streets. I can't imagine the congestion, noise and dust that will happen to the nearby homes with that project. Also, goodbye sunshine! These tall commercial buildings will completely dominate the streetscape, overshadow and overlook many surrounding residences which are subject to a Heritage overlay, and potentially add to transport and traffic horrors that already exist in the area.

It seems like Richmond is becoming a mini CBD and the residences will mostly be gone. So as a current resident I'll enjoy the benefits while they last and get drunk in all those new bars. Oh and move somewhere else next year!