Victorian Civil And Administrative Tribunal (VCAT)

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ABOUT VCAT: The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) was built up under the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (the Act) and started operating on 1 July 1998, with the purpose of serving as a one-stop-shop to solve a range of local disputes. Hearings are directed at 55 King Street, Melbourne, and also at a scope of venues in rural and provincial Victoria. A Supreme Court judge heads VCAT as President. District Court judges serve as Vice Presidents. Applications are heard and controlled by Deputy Presidents, Senior Members and normal members. Members working at VCAT have an expansive scope of particular abilities and capabilities, empowering VCAT to hear and resolve instances of various types and complexities. …show more content…

The site has an area of 159m2 with a frontage of 6.3m and depth of 25m. A double storey building currently occupies the site. The owner of the site adjoining the review site to the east expresses concern about aspects of the proposal’s design that may prejudice the development potential of the adjoining site, and access arrangements. The scale and form of development in this locality is influenced by a combination of policy, zone and overlay controls including a Heritage Overlay and a Design and Development Overlay. The DDO sets a preferred maximum height of 24m on this site. The site is proximate to a wide range of services and facilities, including public transport and it is located on the edge of, or close to, the CBD.The site is zoned General Residential. The applicant relies on the site’s strategic context and its locational attributes and points out the following design objectives - To enhance the importance of Wellington Parade as a key approach to central Melbourne through quality building design and street amenity To minimise the visual impact and overshadowing effect of buildings on the Fitzroy Gardens and Yarra …show more content…

The aspects of the design that are criticised on this point include the location of glazing and balconies along the eastern façade of the proposed building. Ms Trewhella submits that the proposal ought to be designed with boundary to boundary construction with no openings, against which a future development could be constructed. The physical isolation of the site from the lower scale heritage built form in East Melbourne generally to the north is quite pronounced. Although the proposed building would be visible from within the heritage precinct and from some vantage points, it would be quite prominent, the tribunal is not persuaded that the visibility of part of the building above the preferred maximum height would adversely affect the significance of the heritage

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