Monday May 8, 2023
By Royce Millar and Najma Sambul
From left: Hannan Ahmed Nasir, Ahmed Nasir and Adam Mohamed at the site in North Melbourne.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
As factories and warehouses give way to swish apartments and cafes, a plan for a small basketball court behind a mosque is proving a fault line in the transformation of old North Melbourne.
Since 2010 the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency (AMSSA) has operated an inconspicuous mosque and community centre in Boundary Road, opposite the North Melbourne public housing flats.
It is renowned for its community work, notably during the Andrews government’s contentious hard lockdown of housing estates in mid-2020, when it provided not only crucial food and care for fearful residents but also an operational base and local knowledge for officials and police.
“If it wasn’t for community organisations such as AMSSA, people would have been starving three days into the lockdown,” said one thankful public tenant in evidence to the Victorian Ombudsman’s investigation of the government’s shambolic siege.
Now the mosque is struggling for its survival in this faded corner of industrial Melbourne, under state and Melbourne City Council plans to remake the area as a mid-level residential and commercial precinct.
Neighbouring developers are fighting AMSSA’s proposal for a $1.8 million single-level basketball court and meeting hall behind the mosque.
AMSSA believes it is part of a strategy to drive it out of the area.
“They want our property,” said secretary Adam Mohamed. “We think they’re pressuring us to sell up; they’re trying to bully us out.”
AMSSA volunteers distributing food during the public housing lockdowns in July 2020.CREDIT:JOSH ROBENSTONE
The dispute raises uncomfortable questions for government about the vulnerability of community agencies such as AMSSA in the face of urban “renewal” projects and land rezoning that, in this neighbourhood, have tripled land values since 2010.
Over 20 years, AMSSA raised funds from Somali and other Muslim communities, and in 2010 it bought the Boundary Road warehouse because of its proximity to public housing in which many Somalis live.
It is one of a handful of mosques in the inner city – a cultural, social and sporting as well as religious hub. But it is sandwiched between neighbours with big plans that do not include a mosque next door.
To the north, prominent developer David Wardlaw has approval for a $750 million project including luxury apartments designed by high-end architects Fender Katsalidis. To the south and west, the Marcocci family – of the Marcocci Property Group – is looking to relocate its University Food Group, to allow redevelopment of the expansive warehouse site.
For more than three years, Wardlaw and the Marcoccis have opposed the basketball court at every turn through the planning and building approvals process, including at the Melbourne City Council and appeals to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and the Building Appeals Board.
AMSSA has triumphed throughout, with VCAT member Alison Glynn rejecting the Marcoccis’ argument that the basketball court is an “underdevelopment” of the site, concluding instead that it “provides a demonstrable benefit in improving facilities at a valued community service”.
Wardlaw slammed the planning process and, in particular, the city council’s support of the mosque’s plan as “utopian woke crap”.
“We know it was a bad decision and was not made with any planning merit,” he said.
He described the mosque – a former warehouse – as an “eyesore” and the proposed basketball court as a “disgrace”.
In an extraordinary escalation of the dispute, the Marcocci family is now threatening to challenge at the Supreme Court a Building Appeals Board ruling in favour of the mosque – a move that could further delay construction of the basketball court for months or years.
Tim Adams, an architectural draughtsman who designed the building, said he had not seen such intense opposition to a simple construction job in his 45-year career.
“The infuriating thing is that by now, a project like this would normally be up and going. It has cost a community organisation a great deal of money.” he said.
An artist’s impression of the North Melbourne apartments designed by Fender Katsalidis.CREDIT:INTERNET
The site of the proposed basketball court behind the mosque in Boundary Road. JASON SOUTH
And that, said Mohamed, seems to be the point.
More than half of a $350,000 state government grant towards development of the basketball court has been absorbed fighting planning battles. A deadline for completion of the project is approaching, and the mosque has little to show on the ground for its efforts. Meanwhile, construction costs have exploded.
Wardlaw, who has worked closely with the Marcoccis through the dispute, acknowledged the financial strain the fight is causing. “It may be a case of who has the most money,” he said. “They’ve [AMSSA] got limited funds.”
Mohamed confirmed that Wardlaw had offered to buy the mosque site, but said the property was not for sale.
He said AMSSA chose this North Melbourne location to serve the community and especially the people in the flats across the road. “Maybe the developers will try to close the public housing as well,” he quipped.
Nearby resident and city councillor Rohan Leppert avoided commenting specifically on the dispute, but said the mosque was “at the heart” of the community.
“It’s important to recognise that places of worship and community facilities are entirely legitimate inclusions in the mix of land uses in this area,” said Leppert.