Box Hill apartments: Plan for 24-storey tower on Wellington Rd and Surrey Ave

If you thought Box Hill had enough high rises, think again, with a revised plan for a huge apartment complex awaiting the tick of approval.

Another huge apartment complex is on the drawing board for booming Box Hill, with a revised plan to turn two smaller towers into a 24-storey high rise.

Developer Shangyi Vision Pty Ltd wants to build the $70m complex on the site of a parking lot at 5-9 Wellington Rd and 7 Poplar St.

The complex would contain 201 apartments over 24 storeys with five levels of underground parking.

The developer originally had a permit approved by Whitehorse Council in January 2017 for two smaller apartment towers on the site, one reaching 16 storeys facing Wellington Rd and the other reaching six storeys with food outlets at street level facing Poplar St.

Its revised plans, recently advertised by the council, involve a single 24-storey tower which would also include a multipurpose room, library, pool and gymnasium, and a laneway connecting the two streets.

The tower would have room for an extra 31 apartments compared with the 170 slotted into the original plans.

In its advertising documents, the developer said it changed its proposal and the design of the tower due to the “everchanging context of the immediate area”, and the “strategic significance, important role and function the site presents to the greater Box Hill metropolitan activity centre”.

It also indicated it wanted to create a homely environment for all residents with “light filled apartments, lush landscapes and generous outdoor space”.

Artist impressions showed plenty of greenery and shared courtyards and gardens.

“Box Hill is experiencing rapid change; the disappearance of the single residency block, the loss of tree-lined streetscapes give way to high rise developments,” they wrote.

“Historically Box Hill was an idyllic landscape … tones, light and shade, memory and feeling, and connection to landscape present an approach to creating that idyllic character within an urban environment.”

A council spokeswoman said the application remained on public advertising and did not say if any objections had been received.