The conversation
In April 2024, the City of Melbourne shared our plan to plant street trees on six streets in Kensington with the community for feedback.
Community feedback on these concepts helps us shape a final design.
The six streets were identified for priority tree planting in the Kensington Urban Forest Precinct Plans:
- McConnell Street
- Coote Street
- McMeikan Street
- Wight Street
- Gordon Crescent and
- Hopetoun Street.
We propose to plant trees in the road. Planting trees in the footpath would limit the usable space for pedestrians, wheelchairs and prams.
Why are we planting trees here?
These streets currently have no trees on Council managed land, except for Gordon Crescent with four young trees at both ends of the street.
The trees planted in this project will help us achieve our annual target of planting 3000 trees across the municipality. Achieving this goal helps us adapt to climate change, lessen the urban heat island effect, cool and shade the neighbourhood and improve biodiversity.
Map showing the lack of public trees on McConnell Street, Coote Street, McMeikan Street, Wight Street, Gordon Cresent and Hopetoun Street. Dots are locations of public trees in the area at present.
Gathering insights
The community consultation ran from Friday 1 March until Monday 1 April.
A letter was sent to all owners and occupiers on the six streets.
An online survey asked the community about their preferences for the tree planting proposal.
Two on-site pop-up information sessions were held where local residents asked our Council arborist and project team questions about the proposal.
Who we reached
Online surveys
147 online surveys were completed.
Pop up sessions
50 people attended pop-up sessions.
Emailed submissions
10 emailed submissions were received.
Participate Melbourne visitors
1049 visitors to Participate Melbourne.
What we heard
We heard a wide range of responses.
Most survey respondents showed enthusiasm for the project.
Feedback from community members included:
The benefits of trees in the street
- Including shade, cooling and visual amenity
- General supportive comments acknowledging the lack of public trees in these streets.
Support for formalised parking
- To ensure resident priority by introducing or enforcing restrictions, and line marking.
Reduced priority for cars in the street
- With a preference for alternative transport such as bicycles and public transport.
Parking and parking loss
- Some residents currently park in surrounding streets due to lack of available parking.
- The proposed planting would further reduce available parking in some areas.
- Reductions in parking could cause residents to park in surrounding streets more often.
Traffic management
- Reduced road space could cause further traffic issues in narrow streets.
Safety and accessibility
- Parking further away from home is a safety issue for the area, particularly at night.
Tree species
- Concerns about the size of trees at maturity.
- Questions about the choice of non-native trees.
- Concerns about pollen allergies.
Tree maintenance
- Concerns about leaf litter and impacts to solar access to residences.
Individual tree plot locations
- Potential issues with access to residences or interactions with existing private trees overhanging the road.
Answers to common questions from community members:
Tree species were chosen by Council’s Arborists because they will perform well in our current and future climates, and help us reach the diversity targets in our Urban Forest Strategy.
A fruitless variety of the Sweet Gum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) was selected for McConnell Street to reduce pollen allergies and trip hazards from fruit-drop.
Trees planted in urban streetscapes grow smaller in size than they would in their natural environment.
Deciduous trees were selected to maximise solar access for homes during cooler months when trees shed leaves.
Additional street sweeping can be arranged if leaf litter becomes a concern.
Regular maintenance of the trees will be carried out to ensure sightlines are preserved for cars and pedestrians as well as clearances from buildings (see our Tree Management policies).
We are working with our strategic transport team to ensure community responses from this tree planting project are included in the 2024 Kensington Parking and Kerbside Management Review.
Outcomes from the Parking Review will also be shared with the community in the coming months. The Review will show priorities for the area and solutions for each specific street.
Click through for more information on the Neighbourhood Parking Reviews.
Examples of what we heard
'I think it’s very important to get street trees as they will make our street greener rather than just be completely covered in cars. This will cool our street in summer, provide better shade, clean our air and just make our street better. Less cars is better for the safety for kids like me. Yes please to street trees!'
'This area is already too congested in terms of parking. Removing any parking spaces will exacerbate an already bad problem. Very few residents have off-street parking in this part of Kensington. We need trees but not at the expense of resident's experiences.'
'Street trees are important for us and our community. They produce shade, fresh air and block most of nasty car sounds. If we had more trees, we would be outside more often, and meet more neighbours and make new friends. Being outside and being social is way better than inside and watching tv.'
'I do not feel safe walking my children from adjacent streets to my home due to lack of parking. Safety should not be comprised due to tree planting.'
'A wonderful idea to improve biodiversity and vastly improve the streetscape/ aesthetics in the entire zone. Designated, marked parking spaces would also be an added bonus to guide residents in parking correctly.'
'I do support green initiatives in principle however I don’t believe it is practical... Our street is already continually full of cars at most peak times and as a shift worker I’m repeatedly having to park several streets away late at night.'
'I live in Kensington and I walk/ride/drive through all of these streets often. My children go to school at Kensington primary on McCracken and so I walk along these streets to get the kids to school. It is a hot area, with little to escape from the sun. These parts of Kensington are some of the hottest being on the hill, exposed and with no tree coverage.'
'..the trees will impact on available parking, requesting line-marking of parking bays is also completed to formally set-out bays. Existing street parking is haphazard with large gaps often left that are not big enough for vehicles to park in. Line-marking would help residents with better parking set-out and efficiency.'
Impact
Your feedback has helped us to revise our tree planting plans and will directly influence where new trees will be planted.
On McConnell Street, Wight Street, Coote Street and McMeikan Street some tree plot locations have been moved to prevent future conflict with existing private trees.
In addition, some sections of McConnell Street are impacted by a recent change to underground utility offsets. These locations noted on the plans are on hold until we work out a solution for installing new tree plots.
Based on the community feedback we received, we will pause the tree planting plans for Gordon Crescent and Hopetoun Street for the 2024 planting season.
Read the updated tree planting plans (PDF 4871 KB). An accessible version of this document will be made available on request. Any enquiries, please contact City of Melbourne on 9658 9658.
Next steps
When the tree planting plans are finalised, we will send a letter to all owners and occupiers to update them on the outcome and next steps.
All tree planting supported in this community consultation will be planted during the cooler months of this year.
Interested community members can also follow this Participate Melbourne page for updates.
