“It’s going to be a disaster”: residents alarmed about high-rise hospital plan

Chapman St residents have voiced concerns over a proposal to build an 11-storey private hospital in North Melbourne, and are calling for greater transparency in the planning process to ensure their objections are properly considered.

The proposed 223-bed health facility is planned for the corner of Flemington Rd and Chapman, Errol, and Harker streets, with the site currently occupied by the Mercure Hotel.

Bernie Cahir, who represents a group of more than 70 local residents, said the proposal was “weak” from the perspective of the community. 

“Because it’s under ministerial approval, there’s no review or assessment. We only had two weeks to put in our objection, and that’s the last and only chance we have of saying anything,” Mr Cahir said.

“Without proper consultation, there’s a real issue in terms of impact on the residential area.”

As the proposal has come in at a cost of $75 million, the project bypasses the City of Melbourne and goes straight to the state government.

While documents related to the proposal indicate that discussions began in 2021, it wasn’t until November 7 this year that local residents were formally notified.

The community engagement period, which closed on November 22, left residents just two weeks to put in their objections, which also coincided with the timing of the City of Melbourne’s council elections. 

“Council needs to be clear about where they are positioning themselves now, because the public consultation date has closed and the Department of Planning is just waiting for the City of Melbourne to put in their response,” Mr Cahir said. 

The key concerns raised by residents regarding the proposal primarily focus on traffic and pedestrian safety.

The Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) underpinning the proposal relies on data collected in December 2021, a period still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was likely to have influenced traffic volumes.

Additionally, the TIA does not account for the major redevelopment of the Molesworth public housing site, which is located less than 200 metres south of the proposed hospital, and incorporates 350 new dwellings, as well as new campuses for North Melbourne Primary School and kindergarten. 

“I would have thought that they would at least require the proponent to do another traffic survey,” Mr Cahir said. 

Residents have also raised concerns about pedestrian safety, specifically regarding the mooted installation of a convex mirror at the site’s single entry/exit point, rather than the traffic signals used at other hospitals along Flemington Rd.

Mr Cahir argues that this approach is unsuitable for the area, given the high volume of pedestrian traffic generated by nearby schools, including University High School and the two primary school campuses.

“We think it’s going to be a disaster, but our gut feeling is that because it’s under ministerial approval, it’ll go ahead in some form,” he said. 

The lack of transparency in the state government’s planning process means that referral authorities, such as the City of Melbourne and VicRoads, are provided with the proposal for approval but are not given access to the objections raised by residents during the community engagement period.

As a result, decision-makers are not working from the same set of information.

“We don’t get to see VicRoads’ assessment, so their decision really depends on who they’ve allocated to the assessment. If they accept the traffic data from 2021, then we’re sunk, because they haven’t got our review,” Mr Cahir said.

“It’s important that the information is consistent, and the objections should be distributed to the referral authorities, so they are cognisant of what the concerns are,” he said.

“We’re not all looking at the same information at the same time; everybody’s making decisions in their own vacuum.”

Despite reaching out to the council in the hope of discussing the residents’ concerns before the City of Melbourne submits feedback to the minister, Mr Cahir says councillors have yet to engage, which he describes as “unfortunate.”

“Council has been absolutely quiet on it, we can’t get any information out of them in terms of what they support,” Mr Cahir said. 

“The impact this will have on amenity is the sort of thing that we think they should be engaging in, both as an organisation and as individual councillors. Council needs to stand up and articulate their position.”

However, a spokesperson for the City of Melbourne told North West City News that it was currently undertaking an assessment of the application, which would be presented to the Future Melbourne Committee (FMC) in early 2025. •