Councillors reject Warrnambool housing plan, green light another

A planning application to build two two-storey units behind a house on Koroit Street was rejected in a split vote of councillors at the public meeting on Monday, September 4.

The proposal at 271 Koroit Street attracted eight objections with concerns it was an inappropriate development in the heritage precinct.

Despite an officer's recommendation the development be approved, it was knocked back on a 4-3 vote.

Cr Angie Paspaliaris said she was concerned by the development, and would have been more comfortable with just one single-storey dwelling at the rear rather than two.

"There is no doubt that large central properties may be ripe for development, but fundamentally I believe this development design will not sit sympathetically within this heritage precinct," she said.

Cr Otha Akoch said Warrnambool was facing a housing shortage but there was land available.

He said the proposal was in the heritage precinct and was out of character for the neighbourhood.

Cr Vicki Jellie raised concerns about traffic coming out onto the busy Koroit Street near the hospital.

Mayor Debbie Arnott said it was a difficult decision.

"I understand that we do need to have higher density housing within the centre of Warrnambool, we do have a housing shortage," she said.

The development was rejected after Cr Ben Blain, Cr Paspaliaris, Cr Jellie and Cr Akoch voted against it.

Plans to demolish a house on McKiernan Road and turn it into two two-storey townhouses attracted unanimous support from councillors.

It attracted five objections, mostly in relation to drainage and overshadowing.

The proposal is among a number of rebuilds across the city proposed by the Salvation Army as part of the state government's Big Build project.

Cr Angie Paspaliaris said it didn't seem to overdevelop the site with one dwelling becoming two under the plan.

"There's overall community benefit in terms of the marginal increase in the number of dwellings to aid the housing demand," she said.

Cr Richard Ziegler said the city was looking for extra housing and the Salvation Army had gone to the effort of creating two houses when there was previously one.

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