Eastlink’s operator Connect East and Greater Dandenong Council have failed in a bid to scuttle a proposed advertising sign near the tollway in Keysborough.
Media Circus Pty Ltd successfully appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a pemit for the electronic sky sign at 8 Bridge Road.
The double-sided sign is elevated 13 metres high outside the Eastlink road reserve, but would face north and south-bound traffic.
Its digital screens will instaneously change between ads, dwelling for 30 seconds per ad.
In a ruling on 24 June, VCAT member Tracey Bilston-McGillen stated this was an urban design/visual amenity case.
Eastlink had won a national commendation for urban design, with “great effort to provide an interesting urban environment” with its barriers, screens, bridges, tunnels, art and vegetation.
However, she found the sign wouldn’t detract from this particular Eastlink section, which has “no significant urban features” or landscaping.
Also in other parts of Eastlink, there were billboards “with sky around the sign”, she noted.
Nor would the sign detract from the industrial Bridge Road’s character with existing McDonald’s, KFC and petrol station signs.
Greater Dandenong Council had earlier refused a permit on road safety and visual impact grounds.
Ms Bilston-McGillen noted the council’s policy to “strongly discourage” major promotion signs along freeways, and to avoid billboards at this specific “gateway location”.
However she found limited impact on the gateway.
“To clearly view the site and proposed sign, you would need to turn and look into Bridge Road from Cheltenham Road, perhaps whilst you are stopped at the traffic lights.”
Ms Bilston-McGillen noted the sign complied with the council’s minimum one-kilometre spacing between sky signs in industrial zones.
She rejected the council’s claim that the sign would distract drivers on Eastlink as well as the tollway on-ramp at Cheltenham Road.
Ms Bilston-McGillen accepted Media Circus’s traffic-expert evidence that the sign was not not visible for drivers until they’d turned onto the on-ramp 140 metres away.
The Department of Transport advised it had no road safety objections relating to Cheltenham Road.
Connect East withdrew its road-safety arguments.
