Thanks to everyone who could make time to come pose for a photo to accompany the Northcote Leader's article a couple of weeks ago. Sadly the photo didn't make the printed edition, but it's available online for us to admire...
Posted here for convenience:
Units Project Fears by Suzanne Robson
A PLAN to build almost 100 dwellings on a Northcote factory site overlooking Merri Creek has alarmed scores of Darebin residents.
More than 70 residents have objected to the planned Merri Pde development featuring a five-storey apartment block with 83 units and 16 townhouses.
Melbourne developer Jack Haber said the “appropriate” development would be a “vast improvement” on the graffiti-laden factory warehouse on the Northcote site. Two townhouses would be apartments on the corner of Bridge St and Merri Pde. But residents said the “scale and density” of the development on a site about 3800sq m would have a “severe impact on the character and amenity of a neighbourhood made up of mainly one-storey heritage houses.”
Bridge St resident Mike Flattley, who lives next to the site, said future residents of the new five-storey apartments would be able to look into private backyards in Bridge and Union streets.
The planned development also wasn’t “appropriately aligned” to Merri Creek and didn’t effectively address the impact on traffic and waste management.
“If it was open to the parkland that would respond and complement (it),” he said.
“Development of the site is something we want to see but we want it to be appropriate development that responds to the character of the neighbourhood.”
Mr Haber rejected claims made by a Melbourne daily paper that he would buy ready-made apartments from China for the project.
Modular apartments were one option being considered, but he had not yet made a decision.
“It is an innovation that many people are considering,” he said.
“The Government is encouraging more housing and high-density development, particularly on main roads close to transport.”
Each town house would have car parks and the block of apartments would have a basement car park with 51 parking spots.
“We have designed the building so from all vantage points around the site the fifth-storey is barely visible,” he said.
