Article: Milton 'green roof' tower gets the nod

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Milton 'green roof' tower gets the nod

Milton 'green roof' tower gets the nod
TONY MOORE
February 17, 2010 - 5:52AM

Brisbane City Council has approved two major new inner-west developments, including a 20-storey tower at Milton with an environmentally friendly "green roof".

The apartment building on Manning Street, about 200 metres from Milton station, will comprise 126 units, ranging from one to three bedrooms.

The plan includes 151 car parks and 158 spaces for bicycles and may become one of the first buildings in Brisbane to house a living rooftop garden.

There were five objections lodged against the proposal, with issues including traffic, lack of contribution to local infrastructure and concerns a 20-storey tower was too big for the local area.

However, developers will be asked to contribute $3.1 million in infrastructure charges, some of which will go towards a new CityCat ferry stop in the area.

Neighbourhood Planning committee chair Amanda Cooper said developers would also be asked to make a major contribution to improve stormwater drainage in the suburb and described it as a "catalyst" development for the riverside strip of Milton.

This area is planned as a high-density residential and while the current planning guidelines restrict development to 10 storeys, the draft Milton Station Neighbourhood Plan allows higher development up to 20 storeys based on good "sustainable" planning examples.

Labor councillors Milton Dick and David Hinchliffe voted in favour of the development as it matched plans to install higher density living close to rail stations.

Meanwhile, a new Aldi store has been approved for the corner of Kelvin Grove Road and Bishop Street at Kelvin Grove.

Seventy-seven car parks are included in the basement floor of the development, with the department store proposed for the ground floor of the building.

Bikeways have been added to the site design by council planners to make it a better fit into the older light industry area.

Both projects will go to next week's full council meeting for final approval.

[#Metro]

And the one just down the road from it got delayed...pity...  

[Jon Bryant]

Where is the planned increase in public transport services to cater for the extra people.  Most PT Services are full by the time they get to this area.  It is this disconnect between the development approval and PT service provision that is the heart of our problem.  I bet they have assumed only 15 to 20% of trips will be by PT and the rest will support the Lord Mayors tunnels.  Bad transport planning.  The building development approval is not the solution alone. 

[Mozz]

From Milton I expect a high degree of active transport

[#Metro]

Hi Jonno.

Buses need attention in this area
The Ips line will get more services in time (e.g. when Richlands opens). Glaringly though, there is a large bus use in this corridor that would justify IMHO bus lanes or a Western Busway in its own right. The poly-centric nature of the Western Suburbs (i.e Toowong, Indooroopilly, St Lucia, UQ, Taringa, Milton, Suncorp Stadium and Caxton St are all major centres with significant cross-flow between them) which demands a better bus network even if rail were ramped up.

Opportunity
If traffic were diverted from Coronation Drive to the North Link Tunnel then there would be an opportunity to reclaim Coronation drive for expanded and enhanced active transport (walking, bicycles) and public transport uses (Bus, BRT or LRT). It must be stressed that this is only an opportunity- it must be taken and used. Failure to do this will mean this opportunity will be lost to increasing car usage.

Where is the planned increase in public transport services to cater for the extra people.  Most PT Services are full by the time they get to this area.  It is this disconnect between the development approval and PT service provision that is the heart of our problem.

Apart from the solutions discussed above, developers usually pay development fees and infrastructure levies to the council. New residents also mean new ratepayers and income for the BCC. In West End, for example, this will go to the provision of a CityCat stop. The developer wins because this makes their properties more attractive to potential buyers. The council wins because it uses less ratepayer monies and the benefits of a new Ferry terminal is not exclusive to those who live in the new building, but to everybody in the community. There are Long term solutions for this area, see [1] and [2]

[Jon Bryant]

Tramtrain, your points are correct but what I am highlighting is a disconnect between the development approval process and public transport planning.  The connection is there for road transport as most planning reports submitted with a development contain detailed road capacity requirements, plans and recommendations yet usually have little or no reference to public transport requirements. And this usually after making an arbitary statement that PT will be only 15 to 20% of trips.  Thus all the trips are catered for by road and no consideration of forward requirements for PT.