The City of Melbourne’s planning committee will vote at the next committee meeting on 22 November on whether to divest four inner-city properties.
Planning officers have recommended that the committee approve the selling of four properties for an estimated $15 million in total.
It also noted that community submissions and feedback were taken into consideration.
According to the planning report included in the meeting agenda, the community requested that the four properties be used for providing affordable housing options with some requesting that they not be sold to developers.
The four properties are located at 47-49 Canning Street, Carlton, 100-104 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne, 505-513 Abbotsford Street, North Melbourne, and 30-38 Gatehouse Drive, Kensington.
All four are within the city’s different neighbourhood districts with two of them near key urban renewal precincts and sporting venues. The Abbotsford Street property is near the Flemington Road Cricket Oval and Royal Park, as well as a few blocks from the planned Arden Precinct, while the Gatehouse Drive property is near the Flemington Racecourse.
“The sale of any council land is a significant decision and one which is not taken lightly,” a council spokesperson said.
Planning officers assessed all four sites against the needs of the City of Melbourne under its current plans and strategy documents before making the recommendation.
“As is standard practice, the City of Melbourne regularly reviews and makes an assessment of properties that are underutilised or no longer being used for council services,” the spokesperson said.
“Four sites have been deemed not to meet the council’s current or future requirements—and councillors will vote on a proposal to sell these sites.”
Planning officers also recommended that the Gatehouse Drive property go through a rezoning process, estimated to take from 12 to 24 months, to change it to a more appropriate use.
Part of this process will involve more community consultation and an option to continue leasing the property to the private organisation Midwives and Mothers Australia at a market rate in the interim.
It was recommended that statutory procedures be finalised for selling the Canning Street and Abbotsford Street properties at or above a competitive market rate.
The report also recommended finalising procedures to sell the A’Beckett Street property at or above a competitive market rate but to do so with incentives for providing affordable housing on the site added into the sales terms.
Both the Canning Street and Abbotsford Street properties were deemed too small to fit the criteria under the Melbourne Planning Scheme for affordable housing.
Planning officers also noted that though the community requested that the properties be retained for the use of Midwives and Mothers Australia, that this was not possible as it was a private for-profit organisation and the services provided were not run by the City of Melbourne.
Officers also noted that it would not be possible to retain the buildings as significant work was required to provide proper accessibility and maintenance to use them for community purposes, which was currently not budgeted for.
They also noted that the amount of work required would impede any commercial activation by the council on the sites.
The proceeds of the sale of all four buildings is estimated in the planning report at around $15 million which would be used for community-related infrastructure and services.
“The proceeds of any potential sales would be reinvested to deliver our city-shaping infrastructure projects and vital community services,” the spokesperson said.
