The word high-rise inevitably raises the hackles of many Ballarat residents as they envisage the city they love vanishing under glass and steel towers.
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The vision may be hyperbolic but however you look at it, Ballarat council took an enormously significant step in unanimously approving a large development in Lyons Street this week.
It is not the first. St Pauls Way and Nightingale have preceded it and other inner city projects including Scott Parade are in the pipeline.
What they have in common is their significance in shaping a future Ballarat.
The detractors will fear over-bulking and overshadowing, a loss of street character but on the other hand these ventures utilise long-empty and sometimes derelict sites and promise to bring that most valuable commodity of all into inner Ballarat; people.
Multiple international examples show one thing, a city that relies entirely on endless suburban sprawl to accommodate its growth is a future social and environmental disaster.
Growth in Ballarat, with or without the post-pandemic boost, is now a constant and this infill/greenfield balance is a debate that is not going away.
Watch this space.
