Submissions on Hotel Indigo to be heard next week

SUBMITTERS both for and against the proposed five-storey hotel to be built at the start of the Great Ocean Road will have their chance to present their views to the Surf Coast Shire next week.

The Surf Coast Shire’s hearing of submissions committee will consider submissions about the planning application from Barnes Capital Pty Ltd for the 128-room hotel at 2-4 Geelong Road and 48 Bell Street.

Referred to as Hotel Indigo in the planning documents, the $60 million hotel is mostly three storeys but is tiered to four and then five storeys at its southern end.

It would also contain a restaurant, gym, indoor pool, function space, day spa and a roof terrace and bar on the third floor.

Public reaction to the proposal has been mixed, with community group Greater Torquay Alliance leading the opposition.

Independent South Barwon candidate Damien Cole is against the hotel, as is Labor candidate Darren Cheeseman, and incumbent Liberal MP Andrew Katos said this week he could not support a five-storey building at that site.

“I’m not against the concept of bringing jobs and a hotel to Torquay; it’s the built form that’s the problem.

“I’ve made it very clear to (the developer) that in this present form, you’re going to have a lot of opposition, you’re not going to have the support of the community at five storeys, so you’ve got to go back to the drawing board and make something smaller, within the height limits.”

The hearing of submissions meeting will be held at the council chambers in Torquay on Tuesday November 13 at 5pm.

In other Torquay growth news, about 100 people held a rally on Tuesday to support Torquay’s town boundary being permanently set at Duffields Road.

The group, many of whom were wearing red shirts in an echo of the 2009 Red Rally, held signs reading “Save Spring Creek” and “For our future”.