New apartment block bid

A DEVELOPMENT application to turn a drive-through coffee shop in New Town into a three-storey apartment block has been lodged with the City of Hobart.

The plans include 19 residential apartments, each with a private deck, along with room for a commercial tenancy on the ground floor, expected to be a gym, and 26 carparking spaces.

It is on the site of drivethrough coffee business Giaconda Coffee Roasters.

Each apartment ranges between one and three bedrooms, with five apartments on the ground floor with two bedrooms each.

On the first floor there are 10 apartments planned, one is a one-bedroom apartment, six are two-bedroom apartments and three are three bedroom apartments.

The remaining four apartments are on level two, including one of two bedrooms and three with three bedrooms.

“The complex aims to reflect a contemporary ambition for sustainable inner-city living,” the project planner said in the planning report.

“A sense of community is provided with its New Town ‘village’ location, generous shared spaces including courtyard and landscaping.”

The 26 parking spots in the plan would be allocated to the apartments.

The planner noted multiple dwellings with two or more bedrooms should have two spots allocated to them, along with one visitor space for every four dwellings.

He said the number of spaces required under the planning scheme would be 38, but it would be excessive and the location of the development would allow for a reduced reliance on car travel.

“The planning scheme does not take into account the apartments inner-city residential location within 4km of the Hobart CBD and location of the development on a high frequency public transport route,” he said.

“Customer demand for the fitness centre will share the supply of on-street parking spaces available within the surrounding streets.”

The complex would comply with the building height restrictions for the development to be no more than 8.5m because it’s within 10m of a residential zone.