Banyule Council approves Bell St high rise development despite objections
Banyule Council has ticked off a 19-storey apartment tower as part of three buildings approved on Bell St. It comes after the council knocked back an initial plan for 22 storeys at the site. Here’s why it got the tick.
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Banyule Council has approved a 19-storey development on Ivanhoe’s Bell St after knocking back the original proposal for 22 storeys.
The three buildings will span from 87 to 131 Bell St and have heights of 19, 15 and 14 storeys.
The buildings will house 490 residential apartments and has two spaces for retail shops.
The proposal received 33 objections after an ‘extensive’ mail-out, signage, newspaper advertisements and a community information session.
The original application was presented to the council on August 5, and was deemed “too ambitious in both the density of dwellings and the height and scale of the buildings”.
This caused the plans to be reduced, from 22 storeys to 19, and 520 apartments to 490.
Acting Mayor Alison Champion said the council approved the proposal subject to stringent conditions that reduced the scale of the project and addressed local amenity concerns.
“While the height of the construction has been a talking point, when complete the building will sit approximately 12m lower than the existing apartments nearby at 443 Upper Heidelberg Rd,” Cr Champion said.
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There is no mandatory height restriction on the subject site.
“Large-scale developments must be suited to the site and this location provides easy access to transport, shops and services,” she said.
The subject site consists of nine properties which will be demolished and the project will create about 850 construction jobs and 150 ongoing jobs.
courtney.beaumont@news.com.au