High-rise affordable housing project fast-tracked for Frankston

Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny has given fast-track approval for a 14-storey affordable housing project in Frankston, as the state government comes under pressure to meet its ambitious housing targets.

Kilkenny will announce on Sunday that she has rubber-stamped the project by developers CAAMCo at 11 Beach Street through the state’s development facilitation program, which allows her to fast-track large residential projects where at least 10 per cent of dwellings are classified “affordable” homes.

The stretch of land between Kananook Creek (middle of photo) and Nepean Highway (right) is the focus of a major planning dispute in Frankston.Credit: Eddie Jim

The Frankston development will include a mix of 62 one-, two- and three-bedroom homes managed by a community housing provider and rented to people on low to moderate incomes as affordable homes, Kilkenny said.

That means rent will be at least 10 per cent below the market rate and be capped at no more than 30 per cent of the median income of Melbourne workers.

An artist’s impression for the 14-storey affordable housing project approved for Frankston.

“By fast-tracking projects like this, we’re ensuring that more Victorians have access to safe, secure, and affordable homes – because every Victorian deserves a roof over their head,” Kilkenny said.

The project is likely to be controversial, however, given a bitter fight by locals against similar high-rise buildings proposed along the Frankston foreshore.

The Beach Street tower is one block north-east of the so-called “Great Wall of Frankston”, a stretch of land between the Nepean Highway and Kananook Creek where two other 14-storey towers are planned.

In April, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) approved a 14-storey luxury tower by developer Urban DC on the strip.

However in July, VCAT a blocked another 14-storey, 133-apartment development by Pace Development Group, and ruled that its height (47.9 metres) was not “justified in this location”.

Kilkenny intervened in July last year to impose an interim design and development overlay on the strip that limited buildings to three storeys. The ban expired in October, when new planning controls came into effect with “preferred” height limits of 12 storeys or 41 metres.

Last week, this masthead revealed that Labor’s 2020 promise to build 12,000 social and affordable homes over four years under the $5.3 Big Housing Build scheme was running three years behind schedule and that 15 projects earmarked for Crown land had been removed from the scheme.

CAAMCo’s planning application for the Frankston project says the developer intends to work with a community housing provider to obtain state and federal funding.

The state government’s housing statement has set a target to build 800,000 homes over the next decade and identified Frankston as one of 10 “activity centres” where new housing would be concentrated.

Kilkenny said the new affordable homes were close to Frankston train station and within walking distance of key amenities.

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