10-storey medical centre building proposed for Mawson Lakes

A 10-STOREY project in Mawson Lakes will become the tallest building in the northern suburbs.

An artist’s impression of the building, which would be 35.8 metres tall.

A 10-STOREY project in Mawson Lakes will become the tallest building in the northern suburbs after it was approved by the state planning authority.

The 35.8m-tall development, planned for a vacant section of land on Elder Drive, will offer retiree apartments, aged-care accommodation and a medical centre.

It will also feature a pool on the top level, retail shops, driveway access ramps to Elder Drive and Fleet Lane, a basement carpark and above-ground carparking spread across levels two, three and four.

About 240 spaces will be needed to service the complex.

Medical rooms will sit on levels five and six.

Aged-care units and a communal space will occupy level seven, while 26 apartments for retirees will take up levels eight and nine.
Level 10 will feature a pool, deck and medical rooms — plus toilet and change rooms.

The cost of the project is not yet known.

The applicant, Intro Design Pty Ltd, first lodged plans for the building in 2016.

The original designs were for a 19-storey development but the building’s height was reduced to 11 storeys before the Office for Design and Architecture SA scaled it back to 10 floors.

Twelve people, mostly from Mawson Lakes, objected the proposal, arguing the building would be “too tall for the area”, an “overdevelopment of the site” and would be “inconsistent with the character of existing buildings”.

Concerns about traffic congestion, loss of privacy, property values, impacts on the nearby Parafield Airport and carparking were also raised during public consultation period.

A Salisbury Council report on the project, prepared for the SCAP, identified the “height, bulk and scale” of the building as a key issue.

But despite it being “taller and of greater scale than surrounding buildings”, the report recommended consent be granted.

”On balance, (the building) is considered to be appropriate for the site and locality,” it stated.

A $50 million seven-storey hotel planned for Playford would become the second tallest in the region at 34m.