It will be one of the hottest issues in Ballarat’s future: balancing infill development with existing residents’ desires to have a lifestyle not crowded by multi-dwellings on existing blocks.
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Recent reports of Ballarat City Council’s planning department being inundated with a swelling number of development applications, approvals being rubber-stamped without going before council meetings and paperwork regarding property developments going missing have prompted questions about how adequately Ballarat is prepared for the future, and how well our planning process is representing residents.
There is also a burgeoning question about what constitutes a heritage overlay and how those overlays should be interpreted; should new buildings represent what exists already or should they be modern interpretations?
Architect Wendy Jacobs says infill development is an incredibly difficult area.
“People are caught between the need to maximise infrastructure and the need to increase the population, to make the CBD vibrant.”
Ms Jacobs says she looked at plans to increase density in the city by utilising the spaces above shops 30 years ago.
She says it's possible to upgrade the spaces to make them habitable, but owners won't invest in the idea.
"Most of the best infill you will see has been done by architects, and some of it won't meet the guidelines. Increasingly, infill is being done by people whose main concern is the bottom line. It's fraught."
The protests against a recently-approved 16-dwelling development in Eureka and complaints about the handling of an application in Frank Street are indicative of overload, says a former planner for the City of Ballarat anonymously.
City of Ballarat Director Infrastructure and Environment Terry Demeo said commercial pressure was inevitable, given land costs.
“We are... receiving significant applications across both greenfield development sites and inner Ballarat infill opportunities. Council is mindful of ensuring that appropriate resources are allocated to this important area.
“Appropriate resources are allocated to this important area to allow timely processing of, and decisions for, applications.”
“While mindful of this, council officers' position is at all times guided by the strategic policy base of the Ballarat Planning Scheme, and the consultation process that is mandated under the Planning and Environment Act.”
But Mr Demeo rejected claims planners were struggling with the influx and were adhering to proper procedure.
“We're very confident that the basis of our decisions and the integrity of the process is strong and continue to invest in training development of our staff and review of processes to meet community and commercial expectations”, he told The Courier in a statement.
Other large infill redevelopments in inner Ballarat like the St Paul's Way block of apartments on Bakery Hill and the much troubled old Orphanage site in Victoria Street have struggled to find planning resolution leaving developers frustrated and key areas of inner city land empty or underutilised.