Tower endorsed

By James Manton

The City of Melbourne has endorsed a proposal to build a new $60 million residential tower in Southbank.

On October 3, the Future Melbourne Committee referred the application for the construction to the Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne, for a Ministerial Referral Permit.

The tower, on 56-62 Clarendon St opposite Crown Metropol, would accommodate 208 dwellings, 128 serviced apartments and a cafe on the ground floor for residents and pedestrians.

It has been designed by architecture firm Fender Katsalidis, which also designed Southbank’s Eureka Tower.

It has a proposed height of 151m with a podium of around 33m, containing parking for 76 vehicles and one motorcycle.

The owner initially applied for a permit to build a multi-storey building on 56-58 Clarendon St in May 2013, but an extension was granted to start construction by May this year and to be completed by May 2019.

Vehicle access to the tower would be via a laneway from Clarendon St, however nearby residents are angered by the proposed alterations to the lane.

Speaking at the Future Melbourne Committee meeting on October 3, Jennifer Fletcher, a resident on the laneway, and Tony Penna, from the Southbank Residents Association, said that it was currently too narrow to support its current use and this would only be exacerbated following the construction of the tower.

“You can’t tell me that widening a bluestone heritage laneway for a tenth of the laneway is going to help anybody, it’s going to cause chaos,” Ms Fletcher said. “It’s going to be a total nightmare.”

Jane Birmingham, the council’s practice leader for land use and development, said the laneway would be expanded by 2.5m for around 30m to provide more space for two-way traffic and docking.