Hobart City Council committee cans new building height report

A Hobart City Council planning committee has rejected undertaking a $50,000 building heights report.

The Hobart City Council will debate the original recommendation on CBD height limits after a council committee rejected undertaking a new report. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

A HOBART City Council planning committee has rejected undertaking a $50,000 building heights report analysing the social, environmental and economic impact any proposed building height restrictions would have on the city.

Instead, at the next full council meeting, councillors and aldermen will debate the original council officer recommendation based on urban design consultant Leigh Woolley’s report, which set a cap of 60m in zone 1 of the CBD.

The motion to revert back to the original recommendation was made by Councillor Bill Harvey and supported by Alderman Jeff Briscoe and Councillor Helen Burnet at Monday night’s committee meeting.

Aldermen Tanya Denison and Simon Behrakis voted against the motion.

“I’m not going to support the recommendation to go out to consultants to write up something that I think is quite impossible to nail down,” Cr Harvey said.

“I don’t think it’s feasible to do this.”

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Ald Briscoe agreed.

“Our officers recommended 60m. I don’t think 45m will get up, but 60m might,” he said

“I think in this day and age a $50,000 report is going to be fairly inadequate to answer all the questions … I’ll be supporting Cr Harvey’s motion.”

In December last year, the council voted to seek the social, environmental and economic impact report.

This was after the council rejected a 45m cap in zone 1 of the CBD.

Cr Burnet, who chaired the committee, said she was surprised by the outcome.

“I’m very surprised by the result, but I certainly wasn’t a fan of the $50,000 being spent on a report that may not have delivered a conclusive argument one way or the other,” she said.

“Clearly, we need to do more strategic thinking on what we want for the city, but perhaps they need to be separate from building heights and these planning scheme amendments.”

Hobart Not Highrise president Brian Corr, who wants a cap on heights, said he was delighted with the result.

“Looking around the chamber from the meeting, I didn’t think the report would get up,” he said.

“After all the work that has been done, it’s only right that the council debate the Leigh Woolley report and the council recommendation.”