Vermont South apartment block approved by VCAT after being knocked back by council

PLANS for a Vermont South apartment block, rejected by Whitehorse Council as “excessive” and “overbearing”, have been approved at VCAT.

PLANS for a Vermont South apartment block, rejected by Whitehorse Council as “excessive” and “overbearing”, have been approved at VCAT.

The five-storey building, containing 34 apartments plus a basement, will be built at 412-414 Burwood Highway on the edge of Billabong Park.

Developer Burwood Highway Projects Pty Ltd was awarded a planning permit at the tribunal hearing earlier this month, which overruled the council’s refusal to endorse the plans in December.

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At the hearing, presiding member Cindy Wilson said the council was not opposing the building of apartments, but the particular design.

“(The) council... says the proposed footprint and scale is excessive and will result in an overbearing appearance to the adjoining parkland, fail to achieve an acceptable transition to land to the south in the Neighbourhood Residential Zone and create an abrupt presence in Burwood Highway,” she said

Where the apartment building will go up on Burwood Hwy, Vermont South. Image from Google Maps.

Judge Wilson said the council thought “the development (would) be too tall and imposing, even in a main road corridor”.

But the tribunal disagreed with the council’s arguments.

It approved the five-storey design against the recommendation of the Planning Scheme, which states that the purpose of the Residential Growth Zone Schedule 1 — where the site sits — is for buildings up to four storeys.

The tribunal ruled that the building being “significantly larger” than the houses to its west was “consistent with policy references to facilitating a new character for substantial change areas”.

The site of the future of apartment block is home to two houses and various trees.

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Houses are behind and to its west of the site.

Other objectors to the development raised concern about increased traffic.