Church charity reveals six-storey social disability housing plan
MELBOURNE: A church charity has revealed its plan for a six-storey social housing and disability apartment complex.
One of Australia’s most well-known charities has ramped up plans to create a new six-storey social housing precinct just south of Toowoomba’s CBD.
St Vincent de Paul Society has lodged its application for a state government ministerial infrastructure design (MID) on the $40m new mixed-use project on the corner of Ruthven and Stephen streets in South Toowoomba.
The March lodgement comes nearly a year after the charity revealed the new housing development to sit next door to its existing op-shop.
The precinct, which will add 60 social and affordable housing units to the city’s stressed housing supply, will also include ground floor spaces for healthcare services, a community centre and the St Vinnie’s administration staff.
An 81-space basement car park with more than 60 bicycle spaces has also been proposed.
The town planning report by Precinct Urban Planning’s Jess Garratt argued the development’s co-location of services was a proven model for providing low-income housing across Queensland.
The document also stated the 18m-tall building had been designed to minimise impacts on surrounding landholders.
“The development has been sensitively designed to ensure that the additional housing does not generate significant adverse impacts on the residential amenity and character of the locality,” the report says.
“The social and community outcomes in those locations with co-located housing and support services are superior to those with stand-alone housing.”
Pre-lodgement discussions with Toowoomba council staff, a key component of the MID assessment process, have revealed noncompliance on building heights, car park allocation and the consistency of commercial office and health care tenancies in a residential zone.
An attached traffic report by Q Traffic argued the development would have a negligible impact on the road network, noting the lower general rates of car ownership among people living in social and affordable accommodation.
“It strikes an appropriate balance between ensuring the carparking demand is accommodated on-site, and facilitating a more affordable product while encouraging the use of more sustainable transport modes, consistent with local and state government policy,” the traffic report says.
An acoustics expert also recommended installing 2.4m barrier screens to preserve the amenity of both external users and tenants.
It comes as St Vinnie’s pushes ahead with a number of housing projects across Toowoomba to address what charity chief executive Kevin Mercer called last year a “crisis”.
“Over the last 12 months we have seen the Toowoomba region grow in demands for essential services, over 23 per cent growth the highest in the state and a housing waitlist of over 3500 people,” he said.
“Having 60 new homes that we can place people into within Toowoomba is a good outcome, getting people in long term housing solutions is ultimately the solution for the housing crisis.”
Construction is moving ahead with a new social housing precinct on Hill St in Newtown.