Apartments Cut In New Smith St Plan
The Age
Saturday May 21, 2005
ALMOST 100 apartments, mostly student accommodation, have been erased from a development plan in Collingwood to try to win approval from the state's planning tribunal.
The developer, Banco, has applied to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to substitute its original Smith Street plan with the new one. The earlier plan for the site between Peel and Stanley streets was rejected by the Yarra Council. Banco director Mario Lo Giudice said the revised plan was a response to issues raised at meetings between the company, the council and the Collingwood Action Group. Under the new plan, the number of apartments has been cut from 253 to 157, commercial office space has increased and the space occupied by a proposed 24-hour supermarket has shrunk. Building heights along Smith Street, which so outraged residents and traders last year, have been reduced.The company's first plan attracted at least 1500 objections, the most ever lodged with Yarra Council against a single application, and last year led to an independent report on urban redevelopment.Fourteen academics contributed to the report, which editor and Melbourne University architectural historian Miles Lewis said highlighted traffic and urban design problems with the Smith Street plan and exposed what he called serious flaws in Melbourne 2030 - the Government's strategy for housing up to a million extra people in Melbourne by 2030.ONLINE Visit theage.com.au to see images of the revised plans
© 2005 The Age
