New applications join the queue in Footscray

New applications join the queue in Footscray
Mark BaljakJune 3, 2014

Submitted earlier this year to the state planning body DTPLI, only recently have Maribyrnong City Council published the respective reports for 26-34 Buckley Street and 4 Neilson Place online.

Bought to our attention via the Urban.com.au forum, both projects have seen Maribyrnong City Council provide feedback, although no final decision has been handed down by the State Planning Minister on either.

26-34 Buckley Street, Footscray

New applications join the queue in Footscray
Artist's impression of 26-34 Buckley Street, Footscray. Image © Rothe Lowman
  • Site owner: Dobinson Nominees
  • Architect: Rothe Lowman
  • 16 storey residential building at 50 metres
  • 182 dwellings with 96 x one-bedroom, and 81 x two-bedroom dwellings plus 5 x townhouses
  • Below/above ground car park: 122 spaces & 125 bicycle spaces
  • Ground floor retail at 235.4sqm

Maribyrnong City Council have recommended the application be refused by the Minister for Planning on the following basis:

It is considered that the proposal does not meet the overall intent and objectives of the State and Local Planning Policy Frameworks, including Planning Scheme Amendment C125. It is therefore considered that the application should not be supported and a letter of objection be forwarded to the Minister for Planning

City Development Special Report Committee

4 Neilson Place, Footscray

New applications join the queue in Footscray
Artist's impression of 4 Neilson Place. Image © SJB
  • Site owner: Adelaide Banner Pty Ltd
  • Architect: SJB
  • 15 storey mixed use building at 48.6 metres
  • 135 dwellings with 55 x one-bedroom, and 80 x two-bedroom dwellings
  • Above ground car park: 112 spaces & 96 bicycle spaces
  • Two commercial tenancies at 97sqm food/cafe & 95sqm retail
  • Level 5 communal area

Maribyrnong City Council have recommended the application be approved by the Minister for Planning on the following basis:

The proposal, while three storeys in excess of the preferred height is considered to present an acceptable built form and design response for the site given its context adjacent to the railway line. The generous setbacks from the side and rear boundaries enables sufficient light and air into dwellings and enables adjoining properties to be equitably developed without impacting on the buildings own amenity.

City Development Special Report Committee

Join the Conga line?

These two applications have the potential to join the ballooning number of apartment tower proposals in Footscray. Of the developments shown below, only two (top right) are concept images indicative of what is likely to be built, while the remainder represent a fraction of the brigade of developments which have been approved.

Footscray's proximity to the CBD and abundant land zoned for redevelopment such as the Joseph Street precinct should ensure that at some point in the near future the ever increasing queue of apartment development will come to fruition. The area has seen stuttered redevelopment of late, but when will the development dam gates really open - that is the question.

New applications join the queue in Footscray
Images copyright to respective parties

Mark Baljak

Mark Baljak was a co-founder of Urban.com.au. He passed away on Thursday 8th of November 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was 37. Mark was a keen traveller, having visited all six permanently-inhabited continents and had a love of craft beer. One of his biggest passions was observing the change that has occurred in Melbourne over the past two decades. In that time he built an enormous library of photos, all taken by him, which tracked the progress of construction on building sites from across metropolitan Melbourne.

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