Growing resistance to luxury high rise boomer towers
LOS ANGELES: There is growing community outrage about planning rules that now allow luxury high-rise boomer towers.
Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny has sparked outrage by fast-tracking a contentious 18-storey apartment tower that exceeds the suburb’s ‘activity centre’ height limits.
The contentious development — backed by billionaire businessman James Packer — is set to soar above the Allan government’s own 16-storey height limit for Kew under its suburban high-rise rollout.
The move has outraged locals who have accused the government of “bulldozing” residents to get their way.
Kew Junction resident Margherita Ferri said while she wasn’t opposed to more apartments, 18 storeys was “too much” in an area that was already notorious for gridlock traffic.
She said locals were given less than a week to review hundreds of pages of planning documents.
“They really are just bulldozing us,” she said.
Ms Ferri said she was “devastated” that Boroondara council had not advocated more on behalf of residents’ concerns.
Independent candidate for Kew Sophie Torney said she was “supportive” of the development but “disappointed” the state government had ignored the community’s concerns.
“Labor has chosen to ignore legitimate concerns with sunlight by allowing this development to bypass their own 16 storey limit,” she said.
“At 18 storeys, sunlight to nearby areas will be limited to just an hour a day in winter.”
The Planning Minister approved the project through Victoria’s Development Facilitation Program which overrides activity centre planning laws.
The mixed-use development located at the former Leo’s Supermarket at Kew Junction will include four buildings ranging from three to 18 storeys and is expected to create 194 new homes.
Kew Junction is one of 58 suburban ‘activity centres’ where developers are being encouraged to build high-rise apartment towers, despite huge community backlash across areas like Boroondara and Bayside.
On Thursday, activity centre plans were revealed for transport hot spots in the City of Melbourne and the City of Yarra, with apartment towers of up to 15 storeys planned.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Ms Kilkenny announced the new plans in Jess Wilson’s seat of Kew, attempting to paint the Opposition Leader as a NIMBY.
Ms Kilkenny argued 18 storeys was appropriate because it was close to shops and transport, and because population growth among young people had gone backwards in Boroondara.
She said the developers of the Kew project Orchard Piper would fork out about $12m to upgrade an adjacent public space.
Opposition planning spokesman David Southwick said the decision to approve 18 storeys showed the government was “not even following their own plan for activity centres.”
“They’ve gone above those, so you can’t trust Labor to deliver any of these properly,” he said.
Mr Southwick also accused the government of copying the Coalition’s plan for more apartments in Fitzroy and Collingwood where one of four new ‘activity centres’ will be located.
The others are located in Macaulay in North Melbourne, along Heidelberg Rd in Alphington and on Victoria St and Bridge Rd in Richmond.
Ms Kilkenny said the inner city spots – which were earmarked last year – were just some of the areas where high-rise towers would be fast-tracked.
“There’s going to be more branches within the inner Melbourne train and tram zones,” she said.
Mr Southwick said the inner north high-rise tower plans were a rip off of the opposition’s policy to expand the Capital City zone into the same suburbs.
“Well, it’s great to see some copycat policy from the government, but again, it’s not just about choosing a framework to ensure that we have sensible development across the state, but it’s also ensuring that we can build these homes, because people can’t live in a building permit,” he said.
“We need lower taxes, and we need better building framework and regulations, because with the high cost of building homes and the highest taxes in the nation, it doesn’t matter how many permits you issue, these homes won’t get built.”
Asked if he thinks the height limit of 15 stories was enough for suburbs like Collingwood and Fitzroy, Mr Southwick said it should be up to councils to decide.