PLANNING Minister Matthew Guy has come under fire for saying building heights should be capped along the Yarra River in Melbourne’s east to provide consistency and certainty, while failing to impose mandatory height limits at Williamstown.
Last week in State Parliament, Mr Guy said he thought the Yarra River ended in Newport not Williamstown, “but I might be wrong”.
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In December, Mr Guy told the Weekly that he ignored his own planning department’s advice to cap building heights at the Port Phillip Woollen Mill development site because “flexibility was better for the responsible authority [Hobsons Bay Council]”.
Mr Guy this month said mandatory heights were needed along the Yarra because clarity and consistency were needed in relation to planning in Melbourne’s east.
On Thursday in Parliament, western suburbs Greens MP Colleen Hartland asked Mr Guy if such certainty would retrospectively be applied to the Williamstown mill site.
“This development proposal has no height restrictions,” Ms Hartland told the house. “The site used to have strict heritage controls and a three-storey height limit. Now the developers are talking about 813 dwellings and 2000 people.
“The [mill] site is also adjacent to a hazardous substance facility and only 200 metres from a Mobil fuel-storage site.
“It’s a risky business for the government to permit high-density, high-rise development housing 2000 people close to a hazardous site.”
Mr Guy told Parliament he had “looked online” and ascertained that the Yarra River appeared to finish around Newport.
“Having said that, on the subject of the woollen mills site, I have returned the responsible authority status to the local council,” he said.
“I have not put a mandatory height control on the site but a recommended height control, which the government has not made to be wildly abused. It is there as an indication of what the government feels is appropriate for the location, although that is obviously something for the responsible authority, which is for the council, now to manage.
“Maybe someone else will be able to provide us both with a 100 per cent and definitive answer as to where the Yarra River finishes. It appears to be Newport, but I might be wrong; it might be part of Hobsons Bay towards Williamstown.” Save Williamstown spokeswoman Charmian Gaud said Mr Guy was biased against the west. “The minister needs to explain why he has removed mandatory heights from heritage Williamstown, which is on the Yarra River, and yet is considering the other parts of the river for mandatory heights. The mouth of the river ends at Point Gellibrand, according to the Victorian Constitution 1854.”
Evolve Development has lodged seven applications for the site, which is bounded by Nelson Place and Ann and Kanowna streets. If approved, they would result in the demolition of Melbourne’s oldest three-storey brick hotel (Oriental) and the construction of 153 dwellings. Earlier design plans showed four towers up to 13 storeys high.
