ad

Too late for C308?

Too late for C308?
Sean Car

In theory, the proposed planning scheme amendment aiming to create more lively streetscapes would appear significant to Southbank. But in reality, how much of a difference will it actually make?

When one stands at the corner of Balston St and City Rd and looks towards Power St, they are met with one long continuous series of podiums with no breaks in between and, quite literally, no active street frontages.

When a resident living in, say, City Tower, needs to get to neighbouring Kavanagh St, the only way to do so is to walk around the entire block. In an ideal setting, there might be a laneway nearby, like those found in the CBD, to break up this experience with cafes and services along the way. Right?

That is exactly the sort of experience that council’s planning scheme amendment C308 seeks to create more of in Southbank. The question now is, how to do it?

The Southbank Residents’ Association (SRA) hosted a forum on amendment C308 on August 1, when professional planning consultant Rob Milner provided locals with an insight into what the proposed changes mean for Southbank.

As Mr Milner put it on the night, much of what is written in the amendment is aimed at Southbank “in a big way”. However, while it contains a lot of useful stuff for Southbank, much of it might mean very little in reality. The horse has bolted, as they say.

Mr Milner described the amendment as a “colouring-in” of the spaces. The problem in Southbank is, what spaces? The majority of the area, particularly surrounding City Rd, is already fully developed.

Hence, many of the so-called opportunities that the amendment seeks to identify would appear to be lost. Unfortunately, planning is not retrospective, so even if C308 was introduced tomorrow it would have no application to currently “live” applications.

As Mr Milner highlighted on the night, C308 has largely come about as a result of planning work currently being carried out in neighbouring Fishermans Bend – Australia’s largest urban renewal project.

Much like Southbank, Fishermans Bend is an area in transition from industrial to residential. Planners know that, given some of the sizes of land in the area, street frontages of more than 70 metres without a mid-block connection or active use would result in poor amenity.

While Southbank is considerably smaller than Fishermans Bend, its former industrial land uses meant relatively large blocks. When developers came along, they were able to build podiums to the boundary and maximise every inch of their sites.

That is what we see at nearly every block along City Rd from Clarendon St to Southbank Boulevard. This is why the City Road Master Plan is so desperately needed to create a more liveable neighbourhood in Southbank.

When it comes to future developments, there are almost no opportunities left to create a laneway-style feel in Southbank similar to that found in the CBD. C308 in many respects, is too late.

However, that is not say that this amendment is where the buck stops for a more liveable Southbank. Sure, laneways in the CBD are great, but that is the CBD. Southbank isn’t the CBD, so let’s conclude by focusing on the positives.

Approved projects at 87-127 Queensbridge St and 35 City Rd have actually included public connections within their developments on their own accord. These will connect Queensbridge and Fawkner streets to City Rd, opening up the potential for active hubs on those blocks.

And between Southbank Boulevard, Boyd Park, the transformation of the Arts Precinct, the City Road Master Plan and large-scale developments at the BMW site and Melbourne Square, Southbank has a lot to look forward to.

These projects will provide anyone with more than enough reason to make the slightly longer walk around the block. They may even provide attractive propositions for better use of ground floor spaces in current buildings, even if C308 can’t!

Join our Facebook Group
ad