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My concern with these planning scheme changes is the strategic shift they signal - away from our heritage and human-scale CBD - towards one of taller towers, shaded and windy streets, elevated property values, and pressure to remove the heritage we still have.
The new rules and height guidelines will inevitably shift the focus away from our heritage buildings and the current 'defacto' height limit (the 45 metre preferred building envelope).
Inevitably the new criteria will provide a guide for property developers on how they can get taller buildings at a new maximum height limit through the Council process.
A city that's nervous about giant Fragrance towers may feel somewhat relieved by talk of CBD heights that don't sound quite as big, but these changes still start from a view of "well, we must have high-rise somewhere".
But why? There are so many opportunities for exciting, modern, medium density, 'human scale' development of our city - on Macquarie Point, in the area between the CBD and North Hobart (currently dominated by car yards) and along the rail line between the waterfront and Glenorchy.
For our CBD, I would like to see a maximum height limit that reflects the existing 45 metre height rule and reduces the discretion in approving proposals, as well as more proactive planning for restoring, reusing and revamping our heritage precincts. Hobart's CBD has some amazing heritage streetscapes and precincts, but many are hidden, dowdy and neglected - our planning laws are not effective enough.
If these current amendments become law, I fear the experience of our CBD will change - heritage will be even less prominent and under more pressure from an expectation of taller buildings.
If you're concerned about these amendments and have changes to suggest, it's very important that you have your say! You have until 1 SEPTEMBER to send your comments (known as 'representations') to the Hobart City Council. All the relevant documents, and how to lodge your comments, can be found here. Please email me if you'd like a copy of my submission.
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Visionary Street Tree Strategy
52 percent of Hobart streets have no trees at all and more than a third of the street trees that we do have are classed as 'small'.
As Chairperson of the Parks Committee, I have been pushing for a new Street Tree Strategy for the city for a number of years. Last month Council signed off on a great new way forward to fix our denuded streets.
Our new Strategy will deliver a 40% canopy cover in the City’s urban areas in less than 30 years, up from the current canopy level of 16%. It sounds like a long time but increasing the canopy cover in our city will take time - it’s hard to speed up how fast trees grow!
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Take-away plastic ban
Recently Council agreed to introduce a new by-law by 2020 to ban single use plastic takeaway containers. This will be a really helpful step to reduce waste and plastic litter getting into the environment.
We also need, as a matter of priority, to develop a facility for composting the compostable containers that will replace the plastic ones that we ban!
Currently we don't have the capacity to compost our compostable packaging in Hobart, nor do we have a collection service (except for one-off events like the Taste)...so the compostable packaging, while less toxic than plastic, is just going into landfill.
I was alerted to this gap by a number of the 'early movers' in the city – these are the business owners of cafes, like Jono from Altas Espresso. He's using the compostable containers right now, but Council does not provide a collection and composting service. Even if keen business owners like Jono take the containers up to McRobies Gully themselves, we do not have a facility to process them!
That’s why I'm also very keen that we develop a food waste composting facility as soon as possible, because this is what we need to ensure that our ban on plastic containers will lead to less waste to landfill. I’m confident that the Council will develop and roll out a foodwaste / compostables service before 2020, because it's a crucial step in meeting our zero waste strategy.
Once we have a food waste processing service we will also need new city-wide compostable material bins in our city streets and parks - so there is much to be done between now and 2020 when we introduce this new by-law.
Some people argue that plastic containers are not our biggest litter or waste problem. They cite the 2015/16 Keep Australia Beautiful National Litter Index, which found that of the litter items audited in Hobart, only 2.4% were plastic spoons/cutlery, straws, and plastic takeaway containers and cups.
But the devastating global impact of plastic pollution on the marine environment is a big issue, and local governments can educate the community and take a lead for others to follow.
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Awesome adventure playground coming soon
Rock climbing walls, rope ladders, lookouts, mini-abseiling, wobble boards, water play, a caves maze and even an echo chamber! We are building an awesome new nature playground on the Queens Domain that will be ready in early 2018.
The designs for this new playground were informed by ideas from Hobart’s children, an approach we are taking with most of our playground developments. Please email me for a copy of the plans, if you'd like a better look at what's in store.
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Cable Car Facilitation Bill
The City of Hobart made a submission on the State Government's Cable Car Facilitation Bill, raising some of our concerns with this process and potential new law, including that:
“The Bill fails to recognise the social, cultural and economic value to the State of kunanyi/ Mount Wellington and further fails to recognise the significant contribution of both local government landholders and the Wellington Park Management Trust in managing the whole of the Park area."
“The underlying theme of the legislation and the processes therein suggest that kunanyi/Mt Wellington is the equivalent of land able to be accessed as if for a below ground mining lease, rather than a landform that has multiple environmental, social and cultural values.”
You can read the whole submission here.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
>> Local Area Traffic Management consultations
How would you like to see Hobart manage neighbourhood streets? Lower speeds? More crossings? Have your say at a number of meetings across the city.
Monday 21 August 2017 (6 pm to 7.30 pm) - at Derwent Sailing Squadron (Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay), for the Battery Point, Sandy Bay, Dynnyrne and Mount Nelson representatives.
Tuesday 22 August 2017 (6 pm to 7.30 pm) - at the South Hobart Living Arts Centre (408 Macquarie Street, South Hobart), for the South Hobart, Fern Tree and West Hobart representatives.
Wednesday 23 August 2017 (6 pm to 7.30 pm) - at St Giles (11a Gant Street, Lenah Valley), for the New Town, Lenah Valley, Mount Stuart, North Hobart and Glebe representatives.
>> New Town Local Shopping Street revamp
>> Community forum
Thursday 24 August (6–8 pm) Sacred Heart College. What great ideas have you got to make New Town's neighbourhood and shopping strip a more people-friendly and distinctive community hub?
If you can’t make the meeting, you can have your say online, where you can also find background information about the project.
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