A FORMER pathology site is one of the latest development proposals Brisbane City Council is considering as Queensland’s capital seeks to address a foreseen shortage of inner-city retirement and aged care accommodation.
However, aged care developer Tricare has been sent back to the drawing board after lofty plans for three towers of retirement living, assisted living and aged care were kyboshed by council’s chair of city planning, Julian Simmonds.
Tricare had wanted to build towers graduating in height from nine to 16 storeys on the Taringa site.
However Councillor Simmonds, whose electoral ward includes Taringa, said Tricare had been advised significant changes, including a reduction in the height and size of the buildings, were needed.
“The proposal in its current form is not supported by council,” Cr Simmonds told The Senior.
Concerns about transport, access, parking, noise and landscaping, along with appropriateness of land use for the local area, had all been raised, he said.
The land was zoned community (aged care) use with no prescribed height limits in the town plan when Tricare bought it in 2015.
The company is also redeveloping its existing southside Salvin Park aged care facility at Carina Heights, replacing one- and two-storey buildings with six levels of aged care and five levels of retirement units on a 2.4 hectare site.
Meanwhile, Brisbane City Council is still assessing another contentious project – a redevelopment of an existing Aveo retirement village in Newmarket.
Cr Simmonds confirmed height remained council’s main concern.
“Original plans were for aged care units of up to seven storeys, however council has clearly indicated to the applicant that a maximum of three to four storeys would be more appropriate for this site – and where the proposal adjoins homes along the northern boundary, and along Free Street, a maximum of two storeys,” he said.
Late last year Brisbane City Council “incentivised” aged care development in inner suburbs, cutting developers’ infrastructure charges and relaxing some height restrictions.
Nineteen development applications, promising more than 2000 aged care rooms or retirement units, have since been approved.
Between 2010 and 2015, only 49 developments were approved, adding 5159 new aged care rooms and retirement units to the market.
