Report calls for 75m height restriction for buildings in Hobart’s CBD

SIGNIFICANT restrictions on potential city skyscrapers and added criteria on “city-changing” developments will be considered by the Hobart City Council.

Architect and urban design consultant Leigh Woolley, who was commissioned by the Hobart City Council to produce a report about town and streetscape values for the city. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

SIGNIFICANT restrictions on potential city skyscrapers and added criteria on “city-changing” developments will be considered by the Hobart City Council.

As debate rages over plans for a 120m Fragrance Hotel in the CBD, the council’s planning committee has considered a landmark report on height limits by local architect and urban design consultant Leigh Woolley.

It listed several recommendations that could have strong implications for city development, including restricting the height of future buildings to no more than 75m and maintaining the city centre as compact with no “individually prominent” developments.

The committee overwhelmingly endorsed the report and agreed to start the proposed amendments to the planning scheme via the Tasmanian Planning Commission and also to hold a public forum to explain the changes.

These recommendations go to the full council next Monday.

An artist’s impression of the Fragrance Group’s proposed development for 28-30 Davey St. Image: X Squared Architects

City planning director Neil Noye said he was concerned the council did not already have such criteria in place.

“The purpose of this report was to strengthen the controls and [give] guidance for performance criteria … that council was looking for when dealing with the Palace Hotel,” he said.

The Palace Hotel development, now known as the Hyatt Centric Hotel, was approved last year after the original 73m height was reduced by 10m.

Mr Woolley told the committee his report was much broader than just the height considerations.

“There’s a considerable need at the moment to actually get townscape values identified within the scheme and then what that means spatially may become a matter of further discussion,” he said.

Alderman Eva Ruzicka said more than one public forum could be held to explain the proposed changes if necessary.

“My real concern is we are facing some city-changing applications and I want the tools to be able to deal with them,” she said.

Ald Anna Reynolds, who voted against the motion, said she was concerned the proposed 75m height limit would become a default limit.

“This is too important to not get right,” she said.

“What concerns me is we’re introducing a whole menu of additional performance criteria, some of which are really hard to define — some of the items are quite subjective, I think.”

An artist’s impression of the proposed development at 2-6 Collins St by the Fragrance Group. Image: S. Group Architects

The HCC has been under pressure to rethink height limits in the CBD as debate rages about how to accommodate new buildings while maintaining Hobart’s heritage character.

The council has received development applications for projects that exceed the height limits, most notably two hotel proposals from Singaporean developers the Fragrance Group at 120m and 75m in height.

Under the current interim planning scheme, the height limit for the central bus­iness zone is about 45m, but taller buildings can still be approved if it meets ­certain performance criteria.

Earlier this month, a briefing from Mr Woolley was provided to the city’s Urban Design Advisory Panel, which found “council should seriously consider applying an absolute maximum upper height limit in the Central Business Zone and in adjacent zones to ensure that there is a transition in height from the CBD”.