Media release – City of Hobart, 20 July 2021
Expert Report into Cable Car Application Published
An expert report and resulting recommendation relating to the Mt Wellington Cableway Company’s planning application, proposing construction of a cable car and associated infrastructure on kunanyi/Mt Wellington, has been published on the City of Hobart’s website today.
The report will be considered by the Hobart City Council, acting as the Planning Authority, at a Special Meeting next Tuesday (27 July).
City of Hobart CEO Kelly Grigsby said the 1300-page planning application and 16,500 public representations had been carefully considered by an expert assessment panel against the provisions of the Hobart Interim Planning Scheme 2015.
“Assessing a project of this nature is a huge task, which is why the City engaged external planning professionals with extensive experience dealing with large and complex development applications to work alongside our own knowledgeable and experienced staff,” Ms Grigsby said.
“Like any planning application assessment, the process undertaken has been in line with our statutory obligations, and we are proud of the enormous effort that has been put into maintaining a comprehensive and professional process.
“This is arguably one of the most important planning assessment undertaken by this organisation and I thank everyone involved for their contribution.”
A Special Meeting of Council will be held in the Hobart City Council Chambers at 5pm on Tuesday 27 July. It will be broadcast live via the City of Hobart’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/c/CityofHobart) and members of the public are encouraged to watch the meeting from the warmth and comfort of home.
Anyone who can’t access the livestream at home is invited to attend Mathers House, located at 108-110 Bathurst Street, Hobart.
The full report can be found on the City of Hobart’s website at hobartcity.com.au/planning/
View the full report (see also 21 grounds for refusal below).
RECOMMENDATION
That pursuant to the Hobart Interim Planning Scheme 2015, the Council refuse the application for a cableway and associated facilities, infrastructure and work at 100 Pinnacle Road, 30 McRobies Road & Adjacent Road Reserve for the following reasons:
1. The proposed Transport Depot and Distribution use (the cableway) is not consistent with the values of Wellington Park identified in section 8.2 and section S2.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) in that it will diminish the Park’s tourism, recreational, cultural and landscape values as a result of its scale, mechanisation and emissions.
2. The proposed Food Services use is not consistent with the values of Wellington Park identified in section 8.2 and section S2.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) in that it will diminish the Park’s tourism, recreational and landscape values as a result of its scale, nature and intensity.
3. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criterion with respect to clause 28.3.1, A1 or P1 of the Hobart Interim Planning Scheme 2015 as the proposed hours of operation will have an unreasonable impact on the residential amenity of land in the residential zones as a result of noise and other emissions.
4. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criterion with respect to clause 28.3.2, A1 or P1 of the Hobart Interim Planning Scheme 2015 as the proposed noise emissions have the potential to cause environmental harm within the Environmental Living and General Residential zones on McRobies
Road.
5. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criterion with respect to clause E5.6.4, A1 or P1 of the Hobart Interim Planning Scheme 2015 as the proposed sight distances for the access road on to McRobies Road is inadequate and and does not ensure safe movement of vehicles entering the existing roundabout.
6. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution with respect to clause E7.7.1 A3 as the stormwater from the pinnacle centre will be primarily drained to ground and in a storm event the flows will be greater than pre-existing runoff and there is no corresponding performance criterion.
7. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to clause E10.7.1, A1 or P1 of the Hobart Interim Planning Scheme 2015 as the proposed access road from McRobies Road to the boundary of Wellington Park involves the removal of high priority biodiversity values and the mitigation strategies and management measures to retain and improve the remaining high priority biodiversity values are not sufficient as required by subclause (c)(iii).
8. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to clause E10.7.1, A1 or P1 of the Hobart Interim Planning Scheme 2015 as the proposed access road from McRobies Road to the boundary of Wellington Park involves the removal of high priority biodiversity values and special circumstances have not been demonstrated as required by subclause (c)(iv).
9. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section 8.5.7, Issue 2, P2.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal, due to the clearance associated with the base station, associated bushfire hazard areas and towers 1 and 2, does not avoid or sufficiently remedy the loss of swift parrot habitat values and therefore results in a long-term impact on vegetation values.
10. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section 8.5.7, Issue 2, P2.2 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal, due to the clearance associated with the base station, associated bushfire hazard areas and towers 1 and 2, does not avoid or sufficiently remedy the loss of swift parrot habitat values and therefore results in a long-term impact on vegetation values.
11. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section 8.5.7, Issue 2, P2.3 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal does not avoid or sufficiently remedy adverse impacts on the geoheritage values of geoconservation sites: Organ Pipes Columnar Jointing and Wellington Range Periglacial Terrain as listed under the Tasmanian Geoconservation Database.
12. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section 8.5.7, Issue 5, P5.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal is not designed and sited to minimise or remedy the loss of visual values and impacts on visual character of the affected area that arise from the proposed cableway (including towers).
13. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section 8.5.7, Issue 5, P5.2 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal does not harmonise with the visual landscape and natural qualities of the site in terms of appearance and proportions.
14. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section 8.5.7, Issue 6, P6.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal will generate noise emissions that will have an adverse effect on the quiet enjoyment of the natural and cultural values of kunanyi/Mount Wellington and which are insufficiently remedied.
15. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section S2.6, Issue 2, P2.3 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal does not avoid or sufficiently remedy adverse impacts on the geoheritage values of geoconservation sites: Organ Pipes Columnar Jointing and Wellington Range Periglacial Terrain as listed under the Tasmanian Geoconservation Database.
16. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section S2.6, Issue 5, P5.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal does not sufficiently mitigate or remedy the loss of visual values and impacts on visual character of the affected area that arise from the proposed pinnacle centre.
17. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section S2.6, Issue 6, P6.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal is not supported by a geotechnical land instability report that sufficiently considers all risks to life and property that will be triggered by the development of the pinnacle centre.
18. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section S2.6, Issue 9, P9.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the pinnacle centre will visually intrude into the landscape in relation to local and natural features and views from the Pinnacle area and elsewhere in the Park. 19. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section S2.6, Issue 9, P9.2 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the pinnacle centre will cause visual intrusion.
20. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section S2.6, Issue 10, P10.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the pinnacle centre will diminish the values of the site and has not been designed or sited sufficiently to remedy or mitigate the loss of visual values.
21. The proposal does not meet the acceptable solution or performance criteria with respect to section S2.6, Issue 11, P11.1 of the Wellington Park Management Plan 2013 (as amended October 2015) as the proposal will generate noise emissions that will have an adverse effect on the quiet enjoyment of the natural and cultural values of kunanyi/Mount Wellington and which are insufficiently remedied.
Media release – Residents Opposed to the Cable Car (ROCC) , 20 JULY 2021
71% COMMUNITY OPPOSITION, 21 GROUNDS OF REFUSAL – NO GO FOR THE CABLE CAR
The independent expert report analysing the kunanyi/Mt Wellington cable car Development Application (DA) has identified many diverse areas where the project is non-compliant with the Wellington Park Management Plan (WPMP) and Hobart Interim Planning Scheme (HIPS) and details a massive 71% of the record 16,589 representations objected to the project.
Residents Opposed to the Cable Car (ROCC) welcome the release and recommendations of the report, highlighting that many of the grounds for refusal have been writ large since the project was first floated and come as no surprise, given the project is proposed for a much-loved, publicly-owned reserve protected to maintain natural, cultural and social amenity values.
“The proposal to privatise a public reserve and bring mass-tourism to a much-loved mountain has been divisive and consumed inordinate amounts of community time, energy and money, yet this report demonstrates it was destined to fail from the start,” said Vica Bayley, spokesperson for ROCC.
“With 21 grounds of refusal, many spanning the very values the Wellington Park was established to preserve, refusing a permit to construct this private commercial complex and cableway is now the responsibility of elected councillors. We welcome this report and call on all councillors to heed its recommendations.
ROCC expects the unbecoming campaign to question the professional integrity of Hobart City Council staff and consultants to continue in the wake of this report, given the need for the project to rid itself of the requirements of the WPMP and HIPS, and thus, have some hope of ‘approval’.
“Baseless muddying of the waters to discredit professional staff is yet another unnecessary cost of this mass-tourism development. We call on the Mount Wellington Cableway Company to condemn this strategy.
“We welcome the independent planners’ report and its vindication of the issues of concern the community has been raising over many years.
“Its recommendations are sound and in our deputation to next week’s special council meeting, Residents Opposed to the Cable Car will be reinforcing the key failures of this project and personally calling on councillors to vote against it.”
Statement – Mount Wellington Cableway Company spokesperson Chris Oldfield, 20 July 2021
We’ll be making a deputation
“We don’t have much to say, yet. We’ve always said that we’ll follow the development application process. The report that came out today was 1300 pages long. Council are having their meeting on Monday to make a decision. As the applicant we’ve been invited to make a deputation, we’ll be doing that. We’ll look at that report and obviously we’ll be putting our case in response.”
Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Environment and Biodiversity spokesperson, 20 July 2021
21 Reasons to Keep kunanyi Wild
The Greens welcome the independent planning expert advice on the cable car proposal for kunanyi. We hope Hobart City Council representatives will accept all 21 reasons to reject the Liberals’ divisive pet proposal.
The planning experts have confirmed kunanyi is no place for a cable car. They have cited all manner of reasons for why it is not – from biodiversity and habitat loss, visual and noise pollution, stormwater to traffic concerns.
71% of the 17,000 representations received by council opposed the cable car proposal. It’s clear the great majority of people absolutely do not want this development defacing their mountain.
On behalf of the Greens, I thank every representor who objected to the cable car proposal. Just as we rallied at kunanyi’s foothills in defence of a wild mountain, we have sent a strong message to councillors.
There is no place for this destructive cable car proposal, or the privatisation of the pinnacle, on kunanyi. We look forward to Hobart City Council listening to the experts and the community, and voting to reject Mount Wellington Cableway Company’s development application.
TASMANIAN TIMES: Cable Car Interview – Vica Bayley & Nala Mansell.
