Jennifer Pittorino
A planning permit for a nine story health centre in Footscray has been knocked back by Maribyrnong council, after it was fast tracked by state government developers.
Erica Heathcare Partners proposed the use of the land at 5-11 Geelong Road, Footscray be used for a multi storey healthcare centre, two levels of basement car parking and a new vehicle crossover.
In its meeting on Tuesday, November 28, councillors moved an alternate motion for refusal on the grounds that the building will not be suitable for the surrounding area.
Councillor Michael Clarke’s alternate motion highlighted a number of issues with the proposal, including the fact that the applicant had little communication with the council prior to the application.
In question time, Cr Clarke was shocked to learn that the applicant had only had one pre-planning discussion meeting with the applicant prior to submission.
“Are you telling this council that for a $164.5 million major development that we have only had one pre-planning discussion with the applicant prior to submission?” he confirmed with city development manager Ashley Minniti.
The applicant was able to go directly to the state government because of the cost of the development, which requires a minimum spend of $50 million.
“In terms of size, height and proportion, it is completely out of kilter with the surroundings,” Cr Clarke said
“There has been ample opportunity to explore options here, but for some reason the applicant has thought better of that and decided to go directly to the state.”
Cr Clarke said while the municipality does need these types of services, the application goes against Maribyrnong’s values.
Councillor Simon Crawford said council is not surprised to see this development plan after the state government bypassed council in the planning process.
“We are going to continue to get developments which are completely incompatible with the communities where they’ve been proposed,” he said.
“If the applicant came to us we could have advised him very early on that this proposal was not going to work at this site, and they could have moved on and came up with a much more acceptable proposal, potentially elsewhere.”
