Property Council calls for rethink on Melbourne CBD rules
Just three developments – two office buildings and an apartment project – in central Melbourne have been approved under a new CBD planning regime imposed by the Victorian government two years ago.
In the lead-up to November’s state election, the Property Council of Australia has called for the city’s main development rule – known as Amendment C270 – to be reviewed by whichever party forms government.
“Almost all of the cranes you will see when you leave today’s lunch and head back to your offices are ‘pre-C270’ cranes,” said Matthew Kandelaars, the PCA’s Victorian acting executive director in a speech prepared for an industry gathering on Thursday.
“When they come down, and once the balance of pre-C270 applications wash through the system, they’re not coming back.
“This will result in the loss of construction jobs, and a loss of a knowledge base and skill-set at a time we can least afford it.”
The new rules introduced in November 2016 laid out setbacks, building separations, plot ratios and podium heights. A key provision allowed developers to exceed density limits if they met a public benefit threshold.
‘Protecting city’s liveability’
A Charter Hall office project on Lonsdale Street was approved under the regime along with a new police headquarters on Spencer Street developed by Cbus Property.
A hotel and an apartment complex on Clarendon Street in Southbank was also approved.
“We make no apology for protecting Melbourne’s liveability and the right of workers to decent, light-filled office accommodation,” said a spokeswoman for Planning Minister Richard Wynne on Thursday.
The previous government, by contrast, allowed a developer “free-for-all that condemned areas of the CBD to windswept canyons”, she said.
New city fringe precincts of Macaulay, Arden and Fishermans Bend would provide a steady stream of high quality commercial and residential opportunities, she said.
