Developer gains approval for nine-storey boomer apartment tower
LOS ANGELES: A developer has gained approval to build an innovative nine storey apartment tower for baby boomers.
A huge $35 million, nine-storey apartment development near the Scarborough coast has been given the green light by State planning officials.
The planned development site is located at 24–26 Brighton Road in Scarborough, less than 50m from West Coast Highway.
It’s set to feature 67 apartments, including 15 one-bedroom, 30 two-bedroom, and 22 three-bedroom units, along with a ground-floor gym.
The project is being led by QS Developments, which previously sought to build an 18-storey tower and 12-storey hotel on the site,. The development was approved in February 2023 but was later scrapped.
A total of 105 residential car parking bays are planned for the apartments, 102 of which will be across two basement levels.
Ten residential visitor bays and five commercial bays are also being planned for the ground level.
The project’s plans were unanimously approved on Wednesday morning by the five-member Metro Inner Development Assessment Panel, following a recommendation for approval by the City of Stirling.
However, one of the conditions of approval requested by the city, requiring the provision of affordable housing, was removed after developers argued it was not economically viable.
The developers argued that the intent of the affordable housing requirement would be met through the inclusion of one-bedroom apartments, so a requirement to sell units to the Department of Communities was not needed.
“The city did ask us to improve our dwelling mix, which we did. So we’ve got about 20 per cent of one-bedroom dwellings,” a representative from Urbanista Town Planning said during the meeting.
“We’re of the strong view that this satisfies that intent to provide affordable housing.
“We certainly acknowledge that is an objective of the policy framework, but our view very much is that the one-bedroom dwellings do satisfy that, and we’ve gone above and beyond to meet that.”
City of Stirling Councillor Suzanne Migdale, who sat on the panel that voted to approve the project, agreed with the developers’ concerns and spoke about the challenges facing the industry.
“We are in the middle of a massive housing shortage, and I commend the applicant on putting forward an application which will assist with the extreme shortage with one-bedroom apartments,” Cr Migdale said.
“On balance we need to understand how challenging it is for those that are partaking in development … with all of the rules and regulations that they face, and cost of building today, it is certainly not an industry for the faint-hearted.”
“They need to ensure that the project is viable, and I respect that. Without it being viable, at the end of the day, they may not continue to supply housing and we’ve got to recognise that.”
Development Assessment Panel member John Syme agreed with Cr Migdale’s comments and said he believes it will be a “very successful development” and was “easily worthy of approval.”
“The margins for apartment building at the moment are very slender to get a viable project (off the ground) and require pretty solid and robust markets,” Mr Syme said.
“We’ve gotten to a stage now where this can and should be built, and it’s important that it is built.”
“It’s very appropriate for its setting and fits in with the rest of the Scarborough developments extremely well.”