City of Fremantle says Woolstores site design still missing the mark
Plans for a 10-storey development with a shopping centre, Adina hotel, offices, retirement units, student accommodation and a basement car park at the Woolstores shopping centre site in Fremantle have failed to satisfy planners at Fremantle council.
They have recommended the local joint development assessment panel refuse TFE Hotels' plans for the prominent Cantonment Street site, one of 12 in a specially rezoned area allowing five-storey buildings.
The zoning allows for a bonus on top of the five storeys, up to a maximum height of 38.9 metres (around 10 storeys), if plans show ‘distinctive architecture befitting its location, and exceptional design quality’.
Since its first submission last March, the proposal has been revised several times in consultation with the City of Fremantle’s design advisory committee, but the committee advised council planners the plans still did not meet this standard.
Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said the committee still considered the proposal as having significant merit and considered the South West Joint Development Assessment Panel should consider allowing the applicant time to make further design improvements.
He said the site was in a prime location near the railway station, Victoria Quay and Kings Square, so any development that went ahead there would likely become an icon of Fremantle.
"We hoped they would get there, and it's clear they were close, but they didn’t quite make it," he said.
"The committee thought the podium element, the lower brick element, needed to be made more robust, and that it actually needed to be made bigger so that the upper hotel component wouldn’t appear so dominant — to balance it out, in other words. They also wanted some adjustment of street setbacks.
"There are very diverse views in the community but there is general agreement everyone wants to see something happen on this site. But this would be the city's tallest building if built as proposed, andwe have to get it right. We are happy for a very tall building but it needs to be of very high quality."
He said the city appreciated the efforts of the proponent to get the development to this point and was keen to continue to work with them to further refine the concept.
The JDAP will vote on April 18. The developer will be able to appeal its decision via the State Administrative Tribunal.