Talking Point: ‘Yes’ vote on Welcome Stranger sends the right message

QUINTEN VILLANUEVA: Davey/Harrington development ticks all the boxes

QUALITY: Artwork of the proposed Welcome Stranger development, viewed from St David's Park.

On Monday night, Hobart City Council councillors and aldermen have an important decision to make, a decision that will send a message about whether the council is serious about addressing the housing crisis they have acknowledged exists, and about whether they are willing to work constructively with developers to address the issue.

Some may have views against tall buildings, however the Welcome Stranger project — 13 storeys, 45 metres high, 52 apartments housing up to 165 people, and a ground level public arcade including a wine bar, provedore and coffee shop — gives Council the rare opportunity to address the housing crisis as well as help improve areas in desperate need of innovative renewal.

In addition, 24 poker machines will be permanently removed, and the associated licences will be effectively retired. This can only be seen as positive for the local community.

Although the project was refused for approval by the council’s Planning Committee three votes to two last Monday, I submit that the following points must be considered by the full council before a final decision on Monday night:

First, the grounds for refusal related to the heritage aspect of the city block on which the proposal sits, although the Welcome Stranger Hotel, which is hardly an adornment to Hobart’s streetscape, is not itself heritage listed;

Second, it is directly across the road from two tall buildings (Mantra Hotel and Telstra Exchange both about 29 metres in height) and just a block from the 57 metre Commonwealth Building sitting much higher than the proposed redevelopment, at the top of Macquarie Ridge. This allows the proposed building to sit comfortably in the townscape;

Third, the council report found it satisfied the majority of performance criteria relating to the planning scheme and its height “would not be significantly higher, more pronounced, or have a larger apparent size when compared to other buildings in the streetscape”;

Fourth, the report noted the building would be “mostly seen against the backdrop of the existing buildings within the CBD, including the nearby taller buildings” and that for this reason “the height of the proposed development is considered to make a positive contribution to the townscape, as it would be consistent with that of existing buildings”; and,

Fifth, the report found the use of colours and materials to be “visually compatible with the surrounding streetscape.”

Considering the proposal offers inner-city living, it helps reduce urban sprawl, which in turn addresses traffic issues many Hobartians are facing with peripheral growth due to the absence of medium-density infill residential development. The choice of the developer to provide basement carparking helps remove resident cars from the streets — surrounding buildings do not offer this.

Some may not fully appreciate the efforts made by developers. The costs alone involved in applying for a development approval can be significant, often running into many hundreds of thousands of dollars (especially for developments of this scale) and all of this without the certainty that an application will be approved.

The choice of architect and consultants is an important factor and with the Welcome Stranger Hotel, it is evident that the design is of high quality and successfully addresses the streetscape and townscape patterns in the area surrounding the site.

Without developers, not only would there be no hotels and no apartment buildings, there would be no subdivisions, and no new housing.

Tasmania’s population is growing at its fastest rate in 30 years. Last year, four times as many people moved into Hobart than houses were built.

Hobart desperately needs new housing, of all sizes and price ranges, to meet this demand. If not, Hobart’s current housing crisis will become a permanent crisis, the new norm.

It would be disheartening to see the Hobart community continue to suffer from the lack of private development in housing that our city desperately needs.

Quinten Villanueva is the spokesperson for the Welcome Stranger project.