Plans for hotel and hospitality school development at Kangaroo Bay raise village protest

A GROUP of residents has gathered more than 300 signatures for a petition urging the State Government to intervene in a Kangaroo Bay development.

An artist’s impression of the proposed hotel development at Kangaroo Bay. Picture: HUNTER DEVELOPMENTS

A GROUP of concerned Bellerive residents has gathered more than 300 signatures for a petition urging the State Government to intervene in a Kangaroo Bay development.

Despite the $50 million hotel and hospitality training school being approved by Clarence City Council last month — paving the way for developers to start transforming the waterfront site — the group believes the height and size is not appropriate for Bellerive Village.

They continued to gather signatures for their petition at Saturday’s Bellerive Community Farmers’ Market and group spokeswoman Anne Geard said they were hopeful of having their voices heard.

“We want development, we are not against it, but we would like it to be a little bit more in keeping with the area,” Mrs Geard said.

“The first building, the hotel, we think is fine but the second one where they are intending to put in the hospitality school and apartments just off Cambridge Road we believe is far too large — it’s going to be four storeys high and stand 13.6m above the existing road level.

”It doesn’t meet the criteria of the Clarence Interim Planning Scheme 2015, as its frontage will be above two storeys.

“We also feel the council didn’t do enough consultation around the project. We didn’t even know how high the second building would be before its application was lodged in December last year.

“We would like some modification to the development. We would like it to be not as big and be more sympathetic to the area.”

Opponents of a $50 million Kangaroo Bay development sign a petition urging the State Government to intervene. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

Multi-billion-dollar Chinese petrochemical company Chambroad has teamed with Hunter Developments to develop the Kangaroo Bay site.

The council gave the proposal for a 120-room hotel and TasTAFE tertiary level hospitality training school preferred development status in October.

Clarence Mayor Doug Chipman moved to allay the group’s concerns.

“We got a number of responses [around the project] which dealt with height and parking,” he said.

“But they were all discussed and it was passed by council. It has been dealt with by council under the Land Use Act.”

The group has the support of Greens MP for Franklin Rosalie Woodruff, who urged the State Government to listen to their concerns.