Decision near on unit block next to St Michael’s Collegiate school
A $36 million development next to Hobart girls’ school St Michael’s Collegiate has been recommended for approval, despite several hundred community objections.
Tasmania
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A CONTENTIOUS 30m-high apartment development next to a girls’ school in central Hobart has been recommended for approval despite community concerns.
More than 600 objections have been lodged in relation to plans for a 40-apartment residential and commercial complex on a former petrol station site at 202-206 Macquarie St.
The site, which has been vacant since 2005, is adjoined on three sides by the senior campus and boarding house of private girls’ school St Michael’s Collegiate.
A Hobart City Council planning officers’ report has recommended the council approve the $36 million Macquarie St Apartments development, which would include a first-floor childcare centre and two ground-floor commercial spaces.
The proposal will go to a planning committee meeting on Monday afternoon and a decision on whether to approve or otherwise will be made at the full council meeting at 5pm.
Designed by Jaws Architects on behalf of New Pleasant Investments No. 2 Pty Ltd, the proposal has attracted significant community concern, with 617 objections lodged with the council, including more than 100 late submissions.
Just 16 of the submissions were unique representations, while most were pro forma, as is increasingly becoming the case in Tasmania with community groups setting up templates to help residents object to developments.
The council officers’ report said the majority of representations objected to the building height, with concerns about privacy issues for the school as well as visual impacts, overshadowing, loss of views, and poor design.
“Representors raised concerns that the proposal will dominate the streetscape and block views to Mount Wellington/kunanyi from the broader townscape,” the council assessment report stated.
“Representors stressed that Hobart is a town of human scale and that the proposal will diminish the unique built character that gives Hobart its charm.”
Other concerns related to traffic and congestion and a perceived lack of sensitivity to surrounding heritage buildings.
One submission said that “greed, opportunism and a paucity of community awareness” would “destroy the fabric of Hobart”.
“That fabric is made up of physical beauty, human dimensions, pleasant outlooks, coherent heritage and friendly people. Why would people visit, immigrate, or return to live in a place which has lost those values,” the submission stated.
The council officers have recommended the development be approved, with conditions, including that a contamination assessment report be prepared prior to any building work.
Significant remediation work has been carried out on the site, which is owned by Mobil Oil Australia.
Originally published as Decision near on unit block next to St Michael’s Collegiate school