Spring Hill Neighbourhood Plan approved to residents’ disgust

WANT to build a 20 storey tower in Brisbane’s oldest streets? Now you can after Brisbane City Council gave developers the green light to encase this iconic suburb in concrete.

The view along Union St to St Paul’s Prebyterian Church at Spring Hill taken circa 1890. Picture: State Library of Queensland

BRISBANE’S oldest suburb will be walled-in under a new neighbourhood plan that allows concrete towers to be built next door to heritage homes, residents say.

The controversial Spring Hill Neighbourhood Plan was voted into the Brisbane City Plan this week and residents say they are disappointed after years fighting against it.

Under the plan, the back gardens of some of Brisbane’s oldest homes, such as three workers cottages on Water St, could be overshadowed by towers up to 20 storeys tall.

Those towers would be built fronting St Pauls Tce, on the same neighbourhood block.

The site of the once famous Italian restaurant Mama Luigi’s, a pre-war building that has a demolition application on it, could become the site of one of these high-rises.

These streets on Water St, Spring Hill, could be overshadowed by 20 storey towers built just 200m behind them on St Paul’s Tce under the new Spring Hill Neighbourhood Plan. Picture: Google Maps

Spring Hill Community Group spokesman Ross Flutter said the plan represented the council “destroying the atmosphere of the place”.

“It’s no surprise, it’s just so disappointing that we have to put up with third-rate planning, incompetent planning, from this council,” he said.

“We need a change of council, get rid of these goons. We’ve all had a gutful of them.”

Spring Hill, along with Petrie Tce, was one the first suburbs created in Brisbane.

It is home to entire streets of intact housing from the late 1800s, the picturesque Spring Hill Baths and the Spring Hill Reservoir.

Mr Flutter said the new plan did not have adequate transitions from the one and two-strorey heritage buildings to high-rise towers.

“It just means this little two storey areas are going to start to be walled in, along the boundaries,” he said.

“It’s like you’re living in a residential drain with huge buildings on the side.

“We’ve had 30 years (under the old plan) of being forced to protect our heritage, now we have opportunities to develop that will overwhelm heritage.”

These buildings front St Paul’s Tce and are zoned for up to 20 storeys if a developer gets a big enough parcel of land to build on. The house in the middle was once Mama Luigi’s. Picture: AAP/Josh Woning)(AAP Image/Josh Woning)

Councillor Vicki Howard (Central) insisted the plan would protect the suburb’s heritage and that the Spring Hill Neighbourhood Plan was the result of careful planning and consultation.

“I’m so glad that the community has come on board as part of the consultation on the draft renewal strategy and the final plan,” she said.

“We are all looking forward to building an even better Spring Hill that will remain a wonderful place of history, innovation and culture.”

She said the plan ensured the existing character housing remained protected, added 27 new properties to the heritage overlay and 14 properties to the pre-1911 building overlay.

Further, she said 188 parcels of land had been rezoned from low-medium residential to character residential.

“Never before has there been so many special properties protected for future generations in Central Ward. It’s something I’m immensely proud of achieving,” she said.

The Spring Hill Baths photographed around 1910. Picture: State Library of Queensland.

City Planning chairman Matthew Bourke said the Spring Hill Neighbourhood Plan would guide development and growth while recognising local history.

He said the plan focused on two precincts, a higher density mixed-use development precinct at Boundary St, dubbed “the heart of Spring Hill”, and an entertainment precinct at Astor Tce.

The Astor Tce precinct, right next to the CBD, has a height limit of 30 storeys and is roughly bounded by Leichhardt St, Upper Edward St, Wharf St and Turbot St.

“The plan balances Spring Hill’s history with new growth opportunities through changes to site cover requirements, which will recognise the potential of this central location to attract investment and facilitate sustainable development,” Cr Bourke said.

Opposition City Planning spokesman Jared Cassidy said the plan set the scene for high-rise towers that would overshadow and crowd out heritage homes.

He said early in the consultation process the community was painted an enticing picture of an eclectic mix of residential and commercial, reflective of Spring Hill’s character and history.

“Instead it got a plan that encouraged the demolition of character buildings, site amalgamation and the development of inappropriately large towers that would deliver short-term benefit to the developer at an enormous cost to the community,” he said.

Spring Hill, as one of Brisbane’s oldest suburbs, is no stranger to town planning controversies, particularly setbacks and lots sizes. This photograph from 1972 notes the “old workers cottages built right to the edge of the footpath”. Picture: The Courier-Mail Archives