A number of live music venues in Melbourne have famously battled with councils over noise complaints in recent years, including The Old Bar in Fitzroy, Pure Pop Records in St Kilda, and The Prince Public Bar In St Kilda – to name a few. Usually as a result of high rise residential developments going up in uncomfortably close proximity to their doors.
It’s an issue that, disconcertingly, is not new, but a new residential development has not venues, but music studios and residents in Melbourne unified in outcry over a proposed residential project in Richmond, as The Herald Sun reports, with developers taking the fight with council to a local Tirbunal.
Plans for a new eight-storey apartment block were proposed at the site of the old Richmond Tavern, located in Little Hoddle St, situated nearby Bakehouse Studios and Moose Mastering. The developer, Urban Inc., is eyeing the construction of 56 apartments, a rooftop courtyard, and a 51 space parking garage at the site, which adjoins 6-8 and 10-14 Elizabeth St.
Although Yarra Council rejected the residential project plans in February, but fears from local residents and music studios have risen again as the fate of the apartment project now rests with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) after an appeal from Urban Incorporated.
Helen Marcou, owner of nearby Bakehouse Studios and a key member of live music activists SLAM, says the area is a “bad fit” for a residential tower, with the proposed site aiming to spring up shoulder-to-shoulder with Bakehouse Studios. Helen Marcou, owner of nearby Bakehouse Studios and a key member of live music activists SLAM, says the area is a “bad fit” for a residential tower.
“There are a whole lot of creative people rehearsal and recording studios, artists, artisans, and owner operators that have moved along the rail corridor because it’s a noisy place,” Ms Marcou noted of the block that’s tucked between the busy Hoddle St and the nearby North Richmond railway station.
Bakehouse Studios, first established in 1991 and so named for its history with a Fitzroy bakery, is regularly used for recording, pre-production, and rehearsal for a range of Australian and international musicians, including Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, The Saints, Paul Kelly, The Cat Empire and more.
Moose Mastering, most famous for mixing Gotye’s third album Making Mirrors and Award-snaffling hit ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’, is also located nearby in Regent Street.
Little Hoddle Street resident Matt Louey was one of 13 objections that were originally submitted to Yarra Council opposing the apartment construction. “My ground floor will get absolutely no light,” Mr Louey tells the Herald Sun. “It will be cast in darkness, even in daytime. The height and sheer scale of this proposal is out of whack with the area.”
A report to Yarra Council from Urban Inc.’s consultant, Urbis, said the proposed plan had “been carefully designed to minimise adverse amenity impacts on the adjoining properties to the south.” The VCAT hearing from the three-storey apartment block has been set for August 5th and expected to run for four days.
