Our City, Our Square has launched a new petition to give Melburnians another chance to show their support for Fed Square as it is.
The petition is collecting submissions to send to the City of Melbourne and the Future Melbourne Committee. The online petition asks for the council to take “a stand against Apple's plans to demolish Fed Square's Yarra Building”. The petition also calls for the council to petition the state government to take over custodianship of the civic square.
Our City, Our Square is a volunteer-led organisation that has previously started a crowdfunding campaign and pushed for the Yarra Building to placed on the Victorian heritage list.
The plans for an Apple store at Federation Square were announced in late 2017 and were met with backlash from the community. The proposed demolition of the Yarra Building would mean current tenants (like Koorie Heritage Trust) would need to be relocated.
The initial announcement stated that construction on the Apple building would start in 2019, with the store opening in 2020. There has been at least one public debate on the matter since the plans were announced, however, according to an article published by The Age in late 2018, the plans to build an Apple store at Fed Square are at least a year behind schedule.
If you want to sign the petition head along to the Our City, Our Square website.