Residents opposed to a 43-dwelling, three-storey development on the site of the former Newport Timber Yard are calling on Hobsons Bay councillors to reject an officer’s report that recommends granting a planning permit.
Two previous applications for the site at 6 Paine Street, lodged
by Domain Hill, were refused by the council and also the Victorian Civil
and Administrative Tribunal.
But a council officer’s report states that the third application is “less foreign, more well mannered and less monolithic”.
More than 300 objections have been lodged with the council,
with residents labelling the proposed building “a gross over-development
in one of Newport’s nicest low-density precincts”.
Anthony Simmons, of the Protect Newport residents action group, said the community felt that town planners had “caved in”.
“The consensus is the planners have ignored the community and
their own heritage adviser’s call for a significant redesign. Instead,
they have given in to mediocre and insignificant changes put forward by
the developer.
“The latest application is still a large single
building of 43 units up to four storeys high with an ugly cantilevered
façade and other clearly inappropriate design elements.
“It still significantly exceeds ResCode standards for height and
site coverage. These mass, height, and density issues have not been
addressed in all three of the developer’s applications.”
Applicant, Domain Hill director Peter Cahill, suggested the number of objections was inflated.
“When people go about some aggressive lobbying and you end up with
multiple objections from the one household, including in some cases we
know of, children, these things happen.
“We’ve made a range of changes to the design in order to accommodate the residents’ requests and I’ve got that fairly well documented.”
A decision will be made tomorrow night by a special planning committee of the council.
