Planning body knocks back $45m hotel development in Hobart city
A $45 MILLION hotel proposed for the Hobart CBD has been refused by the planning tribunal after surrounding businesses appealed against council approval on height, heritage and density grounds.
The proposed $45 million hotel complex in Macquarie St.
The move has reignited debate about building height limits in the city.
The only remaining legal avenue left to Sydney-based developers Ressen Property Group for their Macquarie St hotel is a Supreme Court appeal.
In August last year, Hobart City Council aldermen voted 7-4 in favour of approving the 225-room hotel, with aldermen Helen Burnet, Anna Reynolds, Suzy Cooper and Philip Cocker voting against it.
The approval was appealed by Sunset Rock Investments Pty Ltd and JK Tasmania-Hobart Pty Ltd, which is the owner of the neighbouring old Hutchins Building, a building directly behind the subject site. JK Tasmania-Hobart also shares common directors with Fragrance Tas-Hobart Pty Ltd, which is developing another hotel directly next door.
The Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal has upheld the appeal based on height and plot ratio grounds, but not heritage concerns.
The site is the former Myer homewares store in Macquarie St and the hotel was proposed by Ressen Property Group.
The proposed development included a hotel, cafe, rooftop restaurant, retail and conference spaces and an outdoor plaza. It would have been one of seven new hotels on the horizon for Hobart to bring extra beds to meet growing tourism demand.
The building would have been 36.6m tall at its highest point — but the planning scheme allows buildings only to a height of 12m in the central commercial and administrative zone.
The tribunal said the council had not given proper consideration to the height issue in approving the development.
Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania chief executive Luke Martin said the decision was disappointing for the industry.
“Hopefully the development isn’t totally lost because we obviously need a lot more hotels, which has been demonstrated over the past few weeks,” he said.
“It was an exciting concept, so I’m hopeful they can still achieve an economically sustainable outcome. Hobart council recognised there was a greater good in approving it, but it didn’t pass the muster in terms of the planning process.”
He said a debate about height limits needed to happen.
“Hobart needs to have a sensible debate about this without compromising what makes the city special,” he said.
Ald Cocker said he had voted against the development mainly because of the height.
“It was pretty obvious when you looked at this development that with a height limit of 12m, 36m is hardly a minor discretion,” he said.
“We did have some fairly emotive arguments at the time about jobs — and nothing to do with planning was suggested by one prominent member [Lord Mayor Sue Hickey].”
He said if the council reconsidered the city’s height limits, it would allow greater certainty for developers.
A spokesman for Ressen Property Group declined to comment yesterday.
Source: The Mercury, Jessica Howard, 27th January 2016
