With Melbourne City Council thwarted in its attempts to restrict architect Nonda
Katsalidis’ Australia 108 tower to the drawing board, the Council has invited
Planning Minister Matthew Guy to add 64 conditions to its permit.
This week the City’s Future Planning Committee declined to support an amendment to the
already approved permit for the 388-metre tower. The amendment paves the way for a luxury hotel, restaurants and a skydeck to be added.
The City’s latest
objection is unlikely to affect the Minister Matthew Guy’s ruling on the matter.
Mr Guy has been a staunch supporter of the project since its conception and has
the ultimate say in all state planning approvals.
At a meeting of the committee on Tuesday night, Mayor Robert Doyle told a packed council chamber
that his major concern over Australia 108 was not in relation to its height, and
though such issues should be taken into account he was not “exercised by the
minutiae of this particular proposal.”
“To me it’s become much more about
the confidence in the public of our planning schemes,” said the Mayor.
The
arm-wrestle between the council and the state government’s Department of
Planning and Community Development (DPCD) has dogged the project since
Katsalidis’ plan was first unveiled more than four years ago.
In 2010 the
City’s objections to the building were found to be without merit by the
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Subsequently the Council
invested heavily in drawing up a Southbank Structure Plan which seeks to limit
the height of all new buildings in the area to less than 130 metres.
The
Council continues to maintain that Australia 108 does not meet set criteria for
a building of state-wide or landmark significance. Neos Kosmos understands that
the Minister is likely to disagree with that judgment.
Architects Fender
Katsalidis embarked on a consultative process with over 3000 local traders and
residents in the Southbank area which resulted in few significant objections.
The Minister is likely to sign-off the final Australia 108 permit amendment
within weeks.
Speaking to Neos Kosmos, Mayor Robert Doyle said that whilst
the Council did not agree with the building going ahead, if it was given a
permit, the City was asking for 64 conditions to be met.
Those conditions
include a request for the developer to provide $3500 per apartment for a City
Road enhancement fund – targeted at capital improvement projects that fitted the
council’s Southbank plan. With some 600 apartments scheduled for Australia 108,
the levy, if put into effect, will realise over $2m.
Mr Doyle added that
whilst “a healthy tension” existed between the City and DPCD, he would rather
have all developments come before the council, regardless of size,
“The
planning minister is the ultimate authority…the question is, is that a good
relationship?” said Mr Doyle.
Nonda Katsalidis, who attended the council
meeting to make a presentation, told reporters after:
“We’re keen to put
forward the argument for what is going to be a very good building.
“It’s in
the right place and I think councillors can see that now.”
Katsalidis
described the Council’s Southbank scheme as “defunct”.
“It’s regularly
contravened. They need to look again at prescriptive approaches to height and
gross floor areas,” said the architect.
“You need to be flexible, you have to
look at the context and judge sites by their own merits. For planners to sit
down and do a master plan for a whole area, ten years later – it looks
ridiculous.”