Wynne warns on Smith Street tower

By CLAY LUCAS

STATE Planning Minister Mary Delahunty would intervene to stop eight-level towers being built on Smith Street if the developer did not scale down its proposal, Richmond MLA Dick Wynne has warned.

Mr Wynne told a meeting of around 70 Collingwood and Fitzroy residents last week that he would ask Ms Delahunty to call in the project if the Banco Group refused to reduce its proposal to build two eight-level residential towers and a 2500-square-metre supermarket on Smith Street.

The proposal has not yet been formally presented to Yarra Council, although plans have been given to the council for preliminary consideration.

Mr Wynne said that, if an unchanged proposal was submitted to Yarra, he would be calling on planning minister Mary Delahunty to call in the proposal for consideration.

Under the Planning and Environment Act, the Planning Minister may intervene in a planning proposal where an application may have substantial effects on local heritage.

"I have written to the developer urging them to reconsider this proposal, and if a more appropriate application is not forthcoming I will be seeking the intervention of the minister," Mr Wynne said.

"This proposal ... is a try-on, and this sort of development is inappropriate for this area," he said. However, he warned that State Government intervention did not come "willy-nilly on any old project". He would ask the Planning Minister to step in because the development, if it were to go ahead, "would set a terrible precedent for developments in strip shopping centres that are designated activity centres" under the State Government's Melbourne 2030 plan.

Developer Banco, which built Carlton's controversial Lygon Court, would not comment about the proposal, which has been on the drawing boards for several years.