HIGH-RISE DEFIANCE

Councillor dissent urged in tower fight

AN anti high-rise group wants Hobart City Council aldermen to ignore council planning recommendations and issue an absolute building height limit for the CBD and Sullivans Cove.

Hobart’s City Planning Committee tonight will consider a report prepared by council staff into whether a non-discretionary maximum of 45m can be applied to the City of Hobart Interim Planning Scheme, central business, commercial and urban mixed use zones and a cap of 18m issued for the Sullivans Cove Planning Scheme.

Council planning officers are recommending that the council does not initiate the planning scheme amendments necessary to specify an absolute height limit in the two zones, as it would be too difficult to justify.

However, lobby group Hobart Not Highrise has asked its supporters to contact Alderman Helen Burnet, a supporter of the height limits, and other members of the City Planning Commission and convince them to go against the advice of council staff.

“Aldermen on the committee can decide not to take their advice. If they do, this would achieve an important change in the planning rules that many people want,” said Hobart Not Highrise president Brian Corr.

“Hobart is at a crossroads. Development is intensifying. Now is the time to set stricter height rules that protect our city’s character, skyline, heritage and brand,” he said.

The report by council staff says that based on the work already undertaken by Leigh Woolley in relation to the townscape values, “it would be difficult to justify a single maximum height of 45m across the Central Business Zone”.

“The townscape assessment recommends that there should be a transition in height from the centre of the CBD to the fringes.

“In Sullivans Cove it is difficult to justify that a maximum height of 18m is appropriate in all circumstances, given that there are already permitted heights standards above this.

“In many parts of Sullivans Cove buildings in the vicinity of 18m high are unlikely to meet the objectives of the Urban Form Schedule.”

Ald Burnet said it was disappointing that council planners had not recommended an absolute height limit.

“It’s an uncertain time for planning,” she said.

“This doesn’t allay any concerns that have been raised with me, and there have been a lot.”