Council approves controversial development plans for St Kilda Marina

Key points

• Plans for a helipad, a dry-dock rooftop bar and privatised beach at St Kilda Marina will go ahead.
• Port Phillip Council voted in favour of the development, despite community pleas for a delay in the decision.
• The majority of the nine councillors also voted to continue “further planning and investigation” for an artificial beach along the marina.

Plans to introduce a helipad, a dry-dock rooftop bar and privatised beach at St Kilda Marina are forging ahead, after Port Phillip Council voted in favour of a development proposal that was changed without public consultation.

Pleas from some residents to stall the approval process were ignored at the council’s monthly meeting on Wednesday night, where new site tenant, Australian Marina Development Corporation, was seeking landlord approval to its original concept for the site on Crown land.

Councillors have changes to a redevelopment of St Kilda Marina including an artificial beach and a helipad. Credit:Simon Schluter

Councillors voted against the company’s bid for an extra foreshore building and a floating venue inside the marina, but approved a helipad, a rooftop terrace on top of the marina’s dry stack boat storage shed, a new “Riva” restaurant building and an increase to the commercial footprint of the site by 1200 square metres – all pending a separate planning approvals process.

The majority of the nine councillors also voted to continue “further planning and investigation” on a new artificial beach along the marina peninsula, 30 per cent of which would be commercialised.

Greens-aligned Deputy Mayor Tim Baxter, one of two councillors to vote against the beach, said the idea should be “knocked on the head now”.

“We manage beaches, we know how expensive beaches are to actually maintain, renourish, keep clean,” he said.

Greens-aligned Councillor Katherine Copsey, a former planning and environment lawyer, was also a dissenting voice in the meeting, speaking out against a number of the proposed changes she described as “a bridge too far”.

“They are significant… the helipad in particular is a really impactful use [for the site] that wasn’t contemplated, and it’s something that I’m uncomfortable with”.

Changes to the original proposed by the tenant, including a helipad.Credit:City of Port Phillip

Councillor Rhonda Clark said she didn’t have a problem with the helipad.

“We have many examples of this in Victoria. No one has a problem with one being at Yarra River … it’s really not that radical,” she said.

Caveats included in the approval for the helipad were that the site would be limited to only four take-offs a month.

Karim Benkirane, senior development manager at the Australian Marina Development Corporation, told the meeting the idea for the helipad was to “principally support emergency services”.

Trevor White, representing community activist group Unchain, which had written to councillors appealing for a delay in their decision, said he was disappointed by the council decision but that his group would continue probing the project during the planning phase.

“The site needed an upgrade, but it’s a balancing act between commercial reality and exploitation,” he said.

Images show proposed plans for the installation of an extended beach, part of which would be commercialised.Credit:City of Port Phillip

He said while a big focus had been on features like the helipad and private beach, there were still unresolved questions about the long-term financial impact to the council of the redevelopment.

“The council has agreed to pay for 75 per cent of the contamination removal from the marina which will be about $6 million,” he said.

“Effectively, they don’t actually get any return from the marina for seven to 10 years. There are big questions about the project’s life cycle.”

The developer’s 35-year lease of the marina began on May 1, after a years-long consultation process that included input from 23 residents. Port Phillip Council notified residents on Friday that a number of changes were being sought by the company to its original accepted proposal.

Officers at the council meeting on Wednesday reiterated that there were many more hurdles for the changes to clear after landlord approval before they would become a reality, and that there would be “non-statutory” community consultation through the planning process still to come where residents could give feedback.

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