An application to transform a sealed CBD car park into a landmark six-storey hotel will come before council tomorrow evening when it convenes for its monthly planning meeting.
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If approved, the 25-metre-high development would mark a conspicuous transformation of the Ballarat skyline, which has already seen considerable change in recent years under council's city-wide urban renewal push.
The proposed 94-room hotel development at 107 Doveton Street South - opposite the Dana Street Primary School - was submitted to council over 18 months ago, but was met with serious reservations on the part of council planning officers.
Those concerns principally turned on the ultra-modern urban design of the proposed development, which - in the view of planning officers - ran contrary to the prevailing aesthetic and architectural character of the streetscape and its immediate surrounds.
With a view to those concerns, the developer - Ballarat Investments Groups - has since amended its designs twice, forcing a deferral of the application before council until now.
The new designs depart significantly from the original, replacing the prominent black cladding and extruding windows of the latter with brick tile cladding on storeys two to four. In a sympathetic nod to the UFS medical centre next door, the proposed hotel development also features elongated arch windows on its upper storeys.
These changes appear to have assuaged the concerns of planning officers, who have recommended council green-light the significant hotel development, which would also house a licensed café and restaurant at the front section on the ground floor.
"The proposal adequately responds to the existing and preferred character of [the area]," the planning report says.
"[It] is considered respectful to the surrounding heritage buildings."
The report added that the height of the building would be in keeping with other recent five-storey approvals nearby, such as the GOV Hub development and the Quest Hotel in the Ballarat train station precinct.
In terms of parking, the plans accommodate 12 onsite parking spaces to the rear of the hotel's ground floor, with 44 additional offsite parking spaces available via a lease agreement with Central Square car park.
Drawing on a transport impact assessment report, council officers have determined this arrangement would adequately meet the parking demands of the hotel, once it's complete.
Notwithstanding the new, altered design and the approval of council officers, however, the application has attracted nine objections in addition to the 19 it received in respect of the original proposal.
To date, none of those objections have been unconditionally withdrawn, meaning the public question time and debate come Wednesday evening is likely to be as heated as it is enlightening.
The concerns range from the prosaic - parking anxiety and amenity issues, for instance - to the curious, such as the suggestion the view afforded by the hotel would enable visitors to "illicitly film school students" or that the onsite car park would "attract undesirable uses".
None of these objections, in the planning officer's report, have been afforded weight.
"The site is situated within a principal activity centre, where a range of uses are encouraged in order to add vitality and provide for the business, service, and entertainment needs of the community," it says. "It is largely surrounded by commercial uses and adequately distanced from sensitive residential uses."
"It is worth noting that schools through the state are located in residential settings and interfaces with multi-storey developments are not uncommon."
Council will consider the application 6.30pm Wednesday at Town Hall.
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