Chapel St: VCAT approves nine-storey hotel over train line near Windsor station

A developer has triumphed in its bid to build a high-rise hotel over an inner Melbourne railway line, but not everyone is impressed with the unique project.

A developer has won a long battle to build what could be Melbourne’s first hotel over part of a railway line on the edge of the CBD.

VCAT members approved SMA Projects’ plans for a 10-storey, 111-room hotel near Windsor railway station after the development was initially rejected by Stonnington Council in December.

The council received 115 objections to the proposed hotel at 24-26 and 28 Chapel St with concerns about traffic, a lack of pick up and drop off space, and its presence on the area’s streetscape.

But the tribunal overturned the council’s decision after a week-long hearing in July, provided the hotel’s height was cut by one storey to nine storeys.

A nine-storey hotel will be built over part of the railway line near Windsor railway station. Picture: David Crosling

SMA Projects originally pitched a 20-storey mixed-use development at the same location in 2017, which was also rejected by the council and later refused by the tribunal.

Members Joel Templar and Gary Chase said the hotel was “a very different proposal than that considered in the previous decision”.

They agreed with the council’s view that the hotel was too high, but felt only a small reduction was necessary.

“We have not been persuaded that the height needs to be substantially lower than what is proposed, and certainly not to the extent the council says,” they said.

“We find that the proposal only needs to be reduced by one level to achieve an acceptable outcome.

Mr Templar and Mr Chase dismissed concerns about the hotel’s presence among heritage-styled buildings in the area, saying it would “clearly read as a contemporary insertion into this southern end of Chapel St”.
They also felt a lack of on-site parking and no pick up or drop off space at the hotel was “not an ideal scenario … but is not so concerning as to warrant outright refusal of the proposal”.

Stonnington councillor Mike Scott expressed his disappointment over the decision through his Facebook page.

“No one is interested in a ‘bookend’ similar to what’s happened to the South Yarra end of Chapel St,” he wrote.

Cr Scott’s followers were also unhappy with the outcome with Kim Lawliotis writing: “We’ll be a Docklands style, shaded wind tunnel in no time”.

Mayor Kate Hely said the tribunal had “ignored the Stonnington community’s clear opposition to the development”.

“Not only is the proposed hotel excessively high for the location, the negative traffic and amenity impacts on the surrounding businesses and community will be substantial,” she said.

“VCAT’s requirement to lower the building by one level falls short of the community’s reasonable expectations that its voice is heard at the state level”.

As part of its works, SMA Projects will demolish existing buildings on the site and also add retail space on the ground level.

In issuing the permit, the tribunal ordered the developer to begin construction within three years and to be finished by 2026.