1-7 Waterfront Place, Port Melbourne (3)
October 2018
VCAT was due to hear Waterfront’s appeal of Port Phillip Council’s refusal of their application on 30 July. On 23 July, the Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne called in the application.
Waterfront appealed the Minister’s decision to the Supreme Court which ruled in favour of the Minister on 22 October.
November 2017
On 21 September, VCAT agreed to review the City of Port Phillip’s decision to refuse the application for 1-7 Waterfront Place.
Six days has been set aside for a full hearing starting on 19 March 2018.
24 July 2017
The City of Port Phillip has refused the planning application for 1-7 Waterfront Place.
In a report highly critical of the application, the Council’s planning officers found that the development proposal failed a number of tests and requirements in the planning controls for the site which had been developed from extensive community input and consultation.
The neglected site continues to deteriorate.
Some of the grounds for refusing the application are
- limited mix of land uses, (ie over emphasis of residential uses) particularly at ground level along Waterfront Place and the north-south pedestrian laneway
- failure to achieve mandatory footpath widening on Waterfront Place
- insufficiently active interfaces at ground level
- design of the laneway
- failure to meet the mandatory setback requirements for the tower
- overshadowing of the foreshore and pedestrian spaces
- visual bulk and massing issues relating to the tower design
- failure to mitigate wind impacts in the public realm
- poor internal amenity for the apartments
Overall, the planners considered the proposal to be an over-development of the site.
The applicant had also not received the consent of Mirvac as required under the restrictive covenant, meaning the application could not even be entertained.
What next? Back to the drawing board or to VCAT?