LAUNCESTON COUNCIL'S PUBLIC MEETING CANCELLED!

BULLETIN #18  Launceston Heritage Not Highrise 31 Jan 2020 REGRETTABLY we have to inform you that the proposed February 12th public meeting where Launceston City Council were supposedly going to inform us, and the community in general, their intentions regarding proposed changes to the Launceston Planning Scheme, particularly in respect of building heights, has been cancelled. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you. LHNH had intended to publicise the meeting as widely as possible not only with a notice in The Examiner, posters in public places around Launceston but also to erect some signs on the East & West Tamar Highways. However when we applied to Dept of State Growth for authorisation they refused on the basis of being “political or potentially contentious” but when queried, stated that permission would be given if firstly approved by Launceston City Council. A request to Council resulted in the response you can see below from Michael Stretton, CEO Launceston City Council, ‘threatening’ (?) to withdraw involvement with our Public Meeting if it was publicly advertised. It was felt that LHNH should not succumb to what is seen as standover tactics, and possible intimidation, by Launceston City Council and, as the purpose of the meeting was solely to provide Council with the opportunity to advise the community their intentions as regards the new Planning Scheme, it was decided to cancel the meeting. What precipitated the apparent change of attitude by Mr Stretton is unclear, unless he was concerned that Council could be embarrassed by a significantly high turn out of community members at the meeting all expressing concern about the possible proliferation of excessively tall buildings in Launceston? OR maybe its something to do with the comments from Mr Stretton in The Examiner on 27th Jan when he said: “..the council shared JAC Group’s frustration with RMPAT about the Gorge Hotel outcome. The council strongly supported this development and advocated strongly to the tribunal that the development be allowed to proceed. The council is in the process of developing updated planning provisions and advice to the development community designed to facilitate and encourage appropriate new development opportunities in the city. It is anticipated that these will be finalised in the coming months. At this stage, I could encourage the JAC Group to positively engage with this process so it can realise its development opportunities in the city. The council is working extremely hard behind the scenes to secure job-creating, new development in Launceston and when we are in a position to do so, we will make the details of these projects public.” It certainly appears that Mr Stretton is happy to engage and consult with developers but not so keen to do so with the community at large when the opportunity occurs! DEVELOPERS PULL OUT OF LAUNCESTON You may have read in the same issue of The Examiner: "Josef Chromy Group says it no longer has any new job-creating project in Launceston. Managing director Dean Cocker said the JAC Group was investing $50 million into new projects in Hobart.” “Mr Cocker said it would be at least a few years until JAC looked at investing again. The future of the Gorge Hotel is now in the hands of the Launceston City Council. Meanwhile JAC has no alternative but to focus all of our new job creating investment in Hobart where there are more opportunities for our business to grow over the next decade.” This story was front page news in The Examiner (headline “Shutting Up Shop”) and also ran prominently on Chanel 7 TV News that evening where you may have seen Deputy LHNH Coordinator Victoria ably presenting LHNH’s point of view on the supposed pull out. Some see this behaviour by the JAC Group as rather reminiscent of a spoilt and petulant child who have had their own way for so long and for once when they can’t they stamp their feet, pick up their bat and ball to go and play somewhere else! HOWEVER, in regard to planning and our cancelled meeting all is not lost as we understand the draft Launceston Local Provision Schedule (LPS) was finalised in August 2019, endorsed by Council on 5 September and has since been submitted to the Tasmanian Planning Commission for their approval. Once the draft Launceston LPS has been approved by the Commission they will instruct Launceston City Council to formally advertise the Draft for a period of 60 days during which the Council, according to their website, ‘will undertake a comprehensive consultation campaign to ensure that our community is involved in the process and has the opportunity to submit formal written representations in support or otherwise in relation to the proposed changes.' This will give everyone the opportunity to make sure their concerns are heard by submitting a written representation, however short or long they want it to be, and if you don’t want unlimited buildings heights to be approved in Launceston YOU MUST SAY SO! IF Council are overwhelmed with such representations they will have to pay attention to them but it is up to you to ensure this happens otherwise developers will have open slather in the way of building heights in Launceston; …THE SKY WILL BE THE LIMIT! LHNH expect to be in a position to provide you with sufficient information to present a respectable representation come the time. If you want information relating to the new planning scheme Planning Matters Tasmania is preparing a guide which will be ready soon. The briefing paper (2017) is helpful reading to understand the process going on throughout Tasmania. https://www.planningmatterstas.org.au