Frankston City Council Policies and Works

Street Works
Of the few streets identified as of local interest in this study, each has some distinct public landscape and paving attributes.

The common early road paving and kerbing in the residential parts of Frankston as gravel with earth gutters draining to a barrel drain or planted verge. Harleston Road is an outstanding example of this once universal type and evidently its privately-owned status has allowed it to remain so. Maintenance of the road is undertaken largely at the landholders' expense with an oil dressing used once a year to combat dust. Note that other more modern methods of top dressing have also been used more successfully elsewhere for unsealed roads. Roadside verges are landscaped in a mixture of exotic and native material, trimmed to allow service/emergency vehicle access, and the lack of reticulated storm water drainage and hard road surfacing contributes to the ground water available to the planting. Standard street lighting is non-existent in this type of landscape and could best be provided as well baffled fittings at close centres and lower mounting heights.

Recommendation
Council should adopt road maintenance and construction policies which concur with or relate to the defined significant period of the area and encourage community participation in the choice of road surfacing and verge planting.

Street Trees and Fittings
The choice of street trees and fittings should also relate to areas of built character.

Rate and Tax Abatement
Provisions already exist in the Local Government Act (and the Historic Buildings Act)1 for authorities to provide unimproved capital valuations which accurately reflect the low redevelopment potential of conserved, individually significant sites. This in turn can relieve the properties of undue rate increases which can cause the owners of, for example, large residential allotments hardship. Just as some Local Governments attract commercial or industrial uses by rate abatement, so too can Frankston promote the retention of significant heritage properties. For example, the Bet Bet municipality provides rate refunds as a proportion of money spent by owners on restoration of the shires significant sites.

Although Federal and State government matters, Frankston Council can urge both governments to adopt income tax deductions for restoration work on heritage buildings Federally (as is done successfully in America) and the abatement of land tax, at State government level. This would promote what is often labour and skill intensive work, creating more employment, and the retention of both heritage and built resources.

Low interest loans and development application cost
Low interest loans or percentage contributions for appropriate restoration or maintenance of significant buildings (Melbourne Heritage Restoration Fund, Gold Fields Restoration Fund and many local municipalities such as City of Coburg) is a positive incentive for conservation. For restoration or just repair of valuable sites, a lump sum is provided as a basis of a revolving fund which may be used for low interest loans, as managed by a volunteer local advisory committee. The waiving of development application fees involving heritage buildings could be another advantage offered to owners of heritage buildings. This is already done by Frankston Council for planning applications involving work of less than $5,000.

Recommendations
Council should investigate rate abatement, rate incentive or special rate levee schemes (commercial improvement schemes) as applied to historic buildings or heritage areas to relieve prospective development sites or redevelopment pressure. Council should also investigate provision of low-interest loans, as the Frankston Restoration Fund, and the waiving of development application fees on heritage buildings.

Council should promote income and land tax deductions/abatement for restoration or maintenance of heritage buildings at Federal government level.