No site visit for Mt Wellington cable car development application visual impact assessment
Cable car opponents say they have been left “speechless” by an omission from the Mount Wellington Cableway Company’s development application.
Tasmania
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THE company who undertook the visual impact assessment for the cable car proposal didn’t even visit the mountain, their report reveals.
Cable car opponents have raised the glaring omission from the Mount Wellington Cableway Company’s development application as they track through the 804-page document looking for blunders.
CABLE CAR COMPANY LODGES DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION
It comes as the application hit an early hurdle with Hobart City Council requesting more information only two days after it was lodged.
The visual impact assessment, labelled preliminary in the Melbourne-based firm Ethos Urban’s report, said a site survey was not conducted.
It said the assessment considered the views represented in visualisations produced by property development consultancy firm Riser and Gain, of which MWCC founder Adrian Bold is a director.
Residents Opposed to the Cable Car spokesman Ted Cutlan described the assessment as incomplete.
“I’m just speechless, no one came to look at the mountain before making a visual impact assessment,” he told the Mercury.
“It didn’t even involve a site visit, they’ve disrespected the Tasmanian people.”
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Mr Cutlan also raised concerns with the development application’s geology report which stated “this document does not form a complete assessment of the site”.
“It’s what I call a dodgy DA, it’s incomplete, they’ve failed to do the drilling that’s necessary to inform the geology of the area,” he said.
“[It] reflects very badly on this company and they shouldn’t be allowed to have control of our mountain.”
Company chair Chris Oldfield said drilling was not required to complete the development application, but would be needed before construction begins.
“Let me be very clear, the only reason our opponents have access to the DA now is because we made it available voluntarily,” he said.
“We welcome debate on this very import project. I am of the firm belief that people who hold genuine concerns for Mt Wellington and the environment will seriously consider what we are proposing as an environmentally preferable way to access the mountain.”
Hobart City Council general manager Nick Heath said they had engaged external consultants to help officers assess the application given the significant public interest in the project.
He said the council had 21 days to ask the proponent for extra information and had already made their first request around the impact on Aboriginal heritage sites, traffic and road status.
“The 42-day time frame which council has to determine the outcome is paused on the day extra information is requested and does not restart until this information has been received to our satisfaction,” Mr Heath said.
The planning application will be publicly advertised after all extra information requests had been dealt with.
“It is expected with a project as complex as the cable car that the planning authority will seek clarification of some issues and we are reviewing council’s requests,” Mr Oldfield said.
Mr Cutlan said their fight would go on and they had a protest action planned in the near future.
jack.paynter@news.com.au
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