PlanningAlerts

3 Comments

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1. The developer has completely misrepresented the neighbouring environment on its application to planning and will drastically reduce the quality of the surrounding area.

   1. This application does not reflect the surrounding area, which is predominately residential but has been marked on the plan as office/retail.

   2. The building will block all light from the rear apartments, and their balconies, of 117 Hardware Street, and the apartments that back onto the current car park from the rear of Lonsdale Street, drastically reducing quality of life.

   3. The building's height will completely overshadow Hardware street, which is an important tourist precinct.

   4. The massive skyscraper will contribute to Little Lonsdale street becoming a dark tunnel with a projected density that far outstrips its capacity for comfortable pedestrian traffic flow. The footpaths in Little Lonsdale street are already completely unsuitable for the amount of foot traffic that it currently has to deal with.

   5. No other small street (of Melbourne Little streets) have been asked to cope with this level of planned height. It is completely unsuited to this kind of development.

2. The supporting planning permit amendment documentation which underpins both TPM-2009-23/A and B, clearly omits 115 Hardware Street as one of the easterly ‘key interfaces’ to the proposed development, despite it being directly adjacent. Furthermore, the associated architectural plans mark 115 Hardware Street as ‘shops and offices’, when only the ground-level of this low-density, five-story building is made up of commercial lots (i.e. the remaining fifteen lots on levels one to four are exclusively residential, since 2002). Given its adjacency, I believe that the proposed development would significantly diminish the quality of life for residents living in 115 Hardware Street due to:

   1. unacceptable shadowing impacts to habitable rooms, including a total loss of direct sunlight for much of each day;
   2. inappropriate potential for overlooking into habitable rooms and outdoor spaces facing the proposed development;
   3. a significant loss of visual relief from habitable rooms facing the proposed development, owing to its sheer bulk, height and close proximity;
   4. the creation of extreme down force winds towards and into habitable areas, the force and noise of which will disrupt both short-term and long-term stationary activities inside and outside residential lots (note that some lots at 115 Hardware Street include outdoor/rooftop gardens).

   In the context of the immediate vicinity, the existing capacity for pedestrian traffic, most notably along Little Lonsdale Street, is already severely stretched, such that pedestrians can regularly be seen making their way along the road instead of the footpaths. The existing congestion would become even more problematic should such a high-density skyscraper be constructed without appropriate capacity planning.

3. The developer has not been honest on the planning application. The neighboring building particularly 117 Hardware street will be incredibly and poorly impacted on. Such a building will drastically reduce the quality of living and value of property for 117 Hardware street which is a historic and lovely peace of hardware lanes history.

   - This application shows that the area as office and retail yet the area is predominately residential.

   - The building will block all light from the apartments at the rear and in some instances completely block windows and restrict the ability to open them. The balconies, of 117 Hardware Street will be no longer private sanctuaries but spectacle for the tower not to mention the unacceptable shadowing impacts The tower will completely ruin habitable rooms because of total loss of direct sunlight for much of each day, increased noise and unwanted loss of privacy.

   - Little Lonsdale street is already hard enough to walk down and with recent other skyscrapers this has been amplified. The footpaths in Little Lonsdale street are not built for the amount of foot traffic let alone even more from another eye sore.

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