Adelaide City Council approves scaled down apartment project on South Tce

A scaled-down version of a controversial city apartment tower has been approved – but despite the slim profile, prospective tenants will need a fat wallet.

A scaled-down version of a super-skinny controversial apartment tower proposed for South Tce has secured planning approval from the Adelaide City Council amid a legal challenge to the council’s initial rejection of a 12-storey development.

The Council Assessment Panel approved the revised eight-storey design at a secret meeting held last week. Members of the general public were excluded from the meeting, where discussions were held confidentially pending the outcome of an Environment, Resources and Development Court appeal to the council’s initial decision.

Developer Carlisle Developments challenged the panel’s rejection of its original plans for a 51.4m-tall building that is just 5.58m wide.

It was to include 10 whole floor apartments, two levels of office space and a rooftop garden but that would have exceeded the height limit for the site – just west of Morphett St – by 15.4 metres.

The new design.

The original design.

Those plans were rejected by the council in June following dozens of complaints from local residents, whose concerns ranged from the building’s proposed height to its design, access and lack of parking.

Carlisle responded by cutting the building’s height to eight levels – or just under the 36 metre height limit – and removing the office component of the project.

A spokesman for Carlisle Developments said the revisions would appease any community concerns.

“We’ve always been very community focused. The plans are very low impact and the standard is very high,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in the apartments because it’s one unit per level and there’s not many of those in South Australia.”

The apartments are priced at about $1.4m.

In its appeal in the ERD Court, Carlisle argues the initial proposal ought to have been granted planning consent under the provisions of the Planning and Design Code.

The council’s decision to reject the earlier design followed the advice of the council’s senior planner Phil Chrysostomou, who had argued design measures put in place by Carlisle failed to make up for the excessive height of the tower when compared with the surrounding area of low to medium-rise projects.

An ERD Court conference is schedule for November.