Walkerville Council pulls support for Buckingham Arms redevelopment
After almost a year of investigations, Walkerville Council has pulled its support to rezone the Buckingham Arms Hotel site because the developer was too ambitious.
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A hotel operator’s push to rezone the historic Buckingham Arms site has been shunned after it did not meet two of Walkerville Council’s “deal breaker” guidelines.
The council agreed at its last meeting to withdraw support for the Matthews Group’s proposed Development Plan Amendment because it wanted to build up to six storeys and have a 30 degree set back.
The council wanted a maximum height no greater than five storeys and a setback of 45 degrees.
Rezoning the Walkerville Tce hotel – which had its beginnings as a hotel in the 1840s – would have paved the way for medium density housing or aged care at the site.
Walkerville Council planning and environment group manager Andreea Caddy said it was a regrettable outcome.
“But it was quite concerning that the two deal breakers … height and setback expectations of any future development, have not been adhered to,” Ms Caddy said.
“We’ve had a very strong position so far and, in my view, if we … accommodate the rest of this process it would be disingenuous because we said one thing and now we are saying it does not matter.”
The Gilberton site is currently zoned local centre, which limits buildings to two storeys.
The Matthews Group wanted the land rezoned to “encourage and facilitate” housing, as well as non residential uses.
It approached the council around September last year asking for the rezoning.
At the meeting, Cr James William said the council had entered rezoning plans in “good faith’, but the right thing to do by the community was to pull support.
“We would be going against our own principles and starting point,” Cr Williams said.
Cr Norm Coleman said the council was “flogging a bit of dead horse” because any major development would likely go before the State Commission Assessment Panel.
“The horse has bolted on this one – because of the dollar value (of any development) it will go out of council’s hands and over to SCAP,” Cr Colman said.
“Forget about 45 degrees, they’ll get 30 degrees, and they’ll go for six floors, not five.”
The hotel, at 1 Walkerville Tce, opened for business around 1846, according to a Walkerville heritage survey.
From 1869 it was owned by the Simpson family, who sold it to Seymour Matthews in 1955.
A year after taking the hotel over, Mr Matthews introduced the popular “value for money” smorgasbord, that the Buckingham Arms is still known for today.
Matthews Hospitality, which owns the Feathers and Maylands hotels among others, was contacted for comment.
