Five to four to three as shire responds to height backlash

A PUBLIC backlash to the vision for the future of central Torquay has spurred a number of changes to the proposals, including a reduction in building height.

The Surf Coast Shire put three draft documents about the Torquay Town Centre Project on public exhibition in late August, and councillors considered a report on the submissions about the documents at their meeting on Tuesday.

The prospect of five-storey buildings in some parts of the town centre has been particularly contentious.

Following further investigation, officers recommended that a maximum of four storeys (13.5 metres) be allowed instead with modified setbacks and excluding the Anderson Road precinct but councillors went further, re-imposing the original three-storey (10.5 metres) limit.

The officers’ report notes that “the amount of additional commercial floor space required to grow the town centre is perhaps not as great as envisaged” in the draft documents, and “permitting heights beyond a certain number of storeys would appear to facilitate more residential development rather than commercial floor space”.

Cr Rose Hodge said the number of storeys allowed in the town centre needed further discussion.

“We got 165 submission and 145 of them at least had something about the height.”

Other changes to be made to the Urban Design Framework (one of the three documents) include:

• Excluding any policy support for the introduction of a discount department store into the Torquay town centre but include built form guidelines to protect the visual amenity of the centre should an application be received
• Abandon the proposal for a town plaza in Cliff Street and consider instead the creation of a pocket park on the east side, and
• Consider rezoning land along The Esplanade from the existing commercial area to Anderson Street to Special Use Zone (rather than Commercial 1 Zone).

Cr Martin Duke said he was pleased with the high level of engagement.

“There are 33 changes from the community that are going into the documents straight away; it’s a really good result.”

To read the draft documents, head to surfcoastconversations.com.au/torquay-town-centre-project.