City tells developers: ‘show us the money’

Jessica Benton
CITY HALL has rolled out Geelong’s welcome mat to developers with money and “good design”.
Project development facilitator Kathy Timmins told a developers’ lobby group meeting this week that a joint State Government and City strategy set up central Geelong for development.
Transit Cities was similar to a 1990s strategy to build 3000 apartments in Melbourne’s Docklands, she said.
“Show us your money and good design,” Ms Timmins urged businessmen attending the Urban Development Institute of Australia meeting.
Committee for Geelong executive director Peter Dorling said the call reflected a “change of attitude” at the City to high-rise development.
“This is positive,” he said.
“There’s definitely been a change at council about accepting developments. There’s a mood in council to accept development proposals in the right spirit.
“No more can they stand there with their finger in the dyke – it (high-rise development) has got to happen.”
“In the past Geelong has said we don’t want anything different and developers have said they’ll go somewhere else. This can’t happen any more,” Mr Dorling said.
Victorian Landscape Guardians president Randell Bell said the meeting call proved that the City was “only looking out for developers, not the wider community”.
“Show me the money is a memorable cliche from a film that does nothing to enhance the reputation of the council,” he said.
“That sort of glibness is nothing short of appalling and a very poor attitude. Planning is there to protect everyone’s interest, not just the developers.”
Mr Bell called for the City to retain a traditional six-storey height limit for buildings in central Geelong.
“The reality is that a high-rise building is an environmental disaster. In a world that recognises what is good for the environment, high-rise does the opposite.”
The Independent has reported a rush of applications to build tall buildings in Geelong over the past month.
The proposals include a bid to build Geelong’s tallest building, a 15-storey apartment tower called Water Marque, in Mercer Street.
Developers have also lodged applications for an 11-storey building at the bay end of Gheringhap Street and a nine-storey structure in Bellerine Street.