By Matthew Sims
The Maribyrnong council’s City Development Delegated Committee has approved an amendment to a planning permit, which would see the construction of a building containing 90 short-stay residential hotel rooms and 7145 square metres of office space.
At the committee meeting on Tuesday, July 26, councillors approved a motion to issue a notice of a decision to grant an amended permit at 26-34 Buckley Street in Footscray.
The amendments to the planning permit included the introduction of an additional basement level, replacing the dwellings with a residential hotel and offices and increasing the overall height from 38.06 metres to 47.6 metres.
Speaking on behalf of the applicant BSD Land, Mecone urban planning state director Stephen Lionakis said the project to construct the short-stay accommodation and office space was “shovel-ready”.
“Both uses will create much-needed employment in the local economy, plus provide much-needed serviced apartments in the heart of Footscray, which it is currently lacking,” he said.
“Our proposal has strong planning support and meets the aspirations of the Footscray Structure Plan and the activity centre.
“We also have worked really hard with council officers to retain the significant tree in front of Barkly Street and get the encroachment level down to 12.2 per cent.”
Cr Simon Crawford said the development would bring much-needed short-stay accommodation options to Footscray.
“We do desperately need some hotel accommodation in the city of Maribyrnong but specifically Footscray,” he said.
“Hopefully, we see something available sooner rather than later.”
Cr Michael Clarke said the new development would be another step towards increasing Footscray’s perception as a destination for those visiting Melbourne.
“The only concern I do have here is the waiving of the car parking,” he said.
“We find with cars and car parking, demand, at various times, does outstrip supply.
“We are going to have to, again, review our car parking strategies going forward.”
