Curran St apartments approved

A proposed block of apartments in North Melbourne has been given the green light by the City of Melbourne despite more than 40 objections from neighbouring residents.

At a Future of Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting on March 2, the council unanimously voted to demolish the current non-heritage listed dwelling to make way for a $4.65 million three-storey apartment on the south side of Curran St.

The proposed building will have street frontage at 5 Curran St with 12 apartments and 21 underground car spaces around 100 metres west of Flemington Rd.

But in supporting the proposal, Deputy Lord Mayor and the council’s chair of planning Cr Nicholas Reece acknowledged there had been “a large number” of objections, prompting heavy scrutiny over three main aspects relating to heritage, precinct and neighbourhood character, urban design and build form, as well as impact to amenity. 

“In terms of the amenity impact on the neighbouring areas, I think this is possibly the most challenging aspect of this,” Cr Reece said.

“But having heard from our officers this evening and read their report very carefully, and we do rely on their expert opinion on these things, it’s clear this project complies with state planning policy.”

A neighbour next door to the site, Kate Richie, told councillors that residents were “very concerned” about the proposal and its impact on the “close-knit” community of Hotham Hill.

Ms Richie said the developer, Mainstone 8 Pty Ltd, had admitted it made a mistake in overshadowing her courtyard garden, which would not receive the requisite five hours of sunlight.

But she said her main concerns were that the height of the building would be 12 metres instead of the maximum permitted height of 11 metres, adding that the height of the interface between numbers one and three Curran St and the proposal didn’t “fit”.

“We have offered solutions but the developer has not attempted to meet us half way,” Ms Richie said.

Another resident nearby the proposed development, Rick Gardiner, objected to the height of the side setback, which he said would overshadow his balcony. In relation to the car park, Mr Richie also raised concerns over two spaces he said would be occupied by a bike rack, and would not be able to be used as intended. 

“And also, the spaces in the plan are 4.9 metres long and many cars are longer than that,” Mr Richie said.

“So, if someone parks a longer car in one of those spaces, the opposite spaces are not available.”

But despite the objections, Cr Rohan Leppert seconded the motion, acknowledging that in his four years and eight months on the council, it was “incredibly rare” to see applications come through with all but two standards met in full.

“We have received a lot of objections and of course there’s always friction when neighbours in particular would like the setbacks from their properties to be a little more than they’re proposed to be, but we also have to be honest with them and with everyone about what the planning scheme says and what should be supported on sites like this,” Cr Leppert said.

“Regardless of the objections, if this were to go to tribunals as one of our submitters has said tonight, the tribunal would have no qualms in very quickly determining the permit should issue. This is a high-quality project.”