SHIRE REFUSES PERMIT FOR ANGLESEA SHOPS AND APARTMENTS

THE Surf Coast Shire has refused to grant a planning permit for a three-storey retail/housing development in Anglesea, arguing it did not respect the town’s coastal village character.

Plans for the building at 143C Great Ocean Road were submitted to the council on February 27.

The ground floor would have had five shops of between 54sqm and 85sqm each, the first floor would have had five apartments, and the second floor would have had three apartments.

At their meeting last week, councillors resolved to refuse the permit on four grounds:
• The height and scale of the proposed building is not respectful of the low-scale coastal village character of Anglesea
• The proposal is an overdevelopment of the site
• Not all accommodation units would be provided with an appropriate level of amenity, notably in relation to access to daylight, ventilation and privacy for some bedrooms, and
• The application does not provide for the appropriate storage, sorting and collection of waste.

Speaking at the meeting, Cr Margot Smith said the council had to consider each planning application on its merits and could not reject an application without going through the process, but thanked the Anglesea community for their feedback, including the 31 objections.

“We’ve got an overdeveloped site, it’s too high, there’s no vegetation to speak of, no consideration of the overlooking of neighbours.

“They’re short-term rentals that have only got south-facing balconies and no other windows – imagine coming to Anglesea in the middle of summer and all you’re looking out onto is a south-facing direction and no sunlight.”

She said the shops “would probably remain empty, like a few that are there at the moment”.

“I think I speak for many people in Anglesea who would prefer to see an empty, old blue hardware store rather than overdevelopment.

“We would rather wait for something that is low scale and coastal village in its character… this is not a property adjacent to a suburban train line.”