1. Fishermans Bend Planning Review Panel – Toyota land holdings
Amendment GC81 – town planning evidence
Brendan rogers

2. Introduction
I have been requested by Toyota Motor Corporation to review the implications of the draft Fishermans Bend on their land holdings at:
155 Bertie Street, Port Melbourne (Corporate Headquarters)
140 Bertie Street, Port Melbourne (Car Park)
61 Bertie Street Port Melbourne (Technical, Design and Regional Office)
Toyota have recently invested approximately $30m to consolidate their national headquarters in Melbourne, within the Fishermans Bend urban renewal area.
In early 2018, there were 560 employees in the Port Melbourne CHQ office. This number is expected to continue to grow.
My review is based on the specific implications that the proposed amendment will have on the future of Toyota’s Port Melbourne land holdings and business operation.

3. Site Context Toyota’s sites are located within the Sandridge Precinct.
Vision: One of Melbourne’s premium office and commercial centres, balanced with diverse housing and retail.

4. Site Context
155 Bertie Street, Port Melbourne. Corporate Headquarters

5. Proposed Planning context
155 Bertie Street
140 Bertie Street
61 Bertie Street
Zone
Capital City Zone (Schedule 1)
Overlay
Design and Development Overlay; Environmental Audit Overlay
Design and Development Overlay; Development Plan Overlay; Environmental Audit Overlay
Precinct
Sandridge
Core/Non-core
Core / Non-Core split
Core

6. Recommendation 1:
Mandatory controls place significant limitations on the future operation and potential expansion of the existing business. They do not contemplate the potential for master planning a future Toyota campus development.
The proposed road is not required from a traffic management perspective.
These mandatory controls ignore the growth potential of a multinational business and key employer, at odds with the commercial vision for the Sandridge Precinct.
Allow flexibility for Toyota to masterplan for the future on their 155 Bertie Street site by removing the mandatory controls around the proposed road alignment.
155 Bertie Street
Source: Minister for Planning revised maps for CCZ – 29 March 2018-FB

7. Recommendation 2:
The Minister’s Part B submission updates the CCZ1 requiring a s173 nominating:
Construction of proposed roads by the developer
Transfer (at no cost) of proposed roads and public open space to the responsible authority.
This is an inequitable impost on affected landowners, it creates uncertainty for companies like Toyota & is problematic in regard to delivery of infrastructure.
The Public Acquisition Overlay can ensure appropriate and fair compensation as well as timely delivery of infrastructure.
A Development Contributions Plan can raise funds for public infrastructure and ensure allowances and dispensations are made for developers with affected land.
Change the mechanism to acquire new streets and public open space to ensure clarity on who will deliver and pay for the asset by applying the Public Acquisition Overlay and a Development Contributions Plan.

8. Recommendation 3:
Floor Area Ratio (FAR) should be measured on a site by site basis, irrespective of subdivision.
Significant implementation issues given:
There is no information on how the responsible authority will monitor FAR for the gross area of the site. Can this effectively be undertaken?
It would be an extremely impractical approach to rely on a multitude of s173 agreements to control FAR for staged development of large sites.
Difficult to manage the equitable distribution of FAR where multiple land owners become involved in development of large sites over time.
Amend the decision guidelines within Schedule 1 to the Capital City Zone to remove the guideline which states:
‘where part of a site is developed, whether an agreement has been entered into to ensure that the floor area ratio across the site will not be exceeded and whether the development is sited so that adequate setbacks are maintained in the event that the site is subdivided or otherwise altered to create a separate future development site’.

9. Recommendation 4:
155 Bertie Street
Designate the entire 155 Bertie Street site within the core area.
The site is a maximum 600 metres from the proposed metro station and the Westgate Freeway borders the northern portion of the site.
The delineation of the core area over a portion of a single site is arbitrary and not conducive to the orderly development of the site.

10. The controls are overly prescriptive and restrict a variety of design outcomes
Controls should be performance based.
For example:
Mandatory controls including tower setbacks and street wall heights, do not allow for site specific design considerations where Toyota’s sites interface the Westgate Freeway.
140 Bertie Street is particularly constrained given its small size and is restricted with minimum setback requirements and podium height requirements where the site abuts the Freeway.
This is a missed opportunity on a site with limited sensitive interfaces and excellent access to northern light.
Recommendation 5:
In Schedule 30 to the Design and Development Overlay, make the mandatory controls discretionary to allow for flexibility and innovation in design.

11. Recommendation 6:
Allow for minor shadowing that does not cause significant amenity impact on Neighbourhood Parks between 11am and 2pm at the equinox to be considered.
Model showing buildings of 12 storeys within the core area overshadowing the park at the equinox.
Mandatory overshadowing controls constrain design outcomes.
In the core area of 155 Bertie Street, there is a 12 storey height limit. The image shows that if the DDO setback requirements are complied with, there is still minor overshadowing to the linear park.
The prescriptive overshadowing controls don’t allow any discretion even if overshadowing may not unreasonably impact the amenity of the park.

12. Recommendation 7:
Given the nature of the business, space for cars is paramount to the success of Toyota, particularly in the short to medium term.
Car parking is required for staff and fleet vehicles.
Greater certainty is required for businesses such as Toyota in regard to their short to medium term access and car parking requirements.
Expanding the decision guidelines to make allowances for key employers whose business is in line with the vision for the Sandridge Precinct will help to encourage and retain multinational corporations such as Toyota.
Expand the decision guidelines of the Parking Overlay to accommodate the parking needs of existing businesses whose functions are in line with the vision for employment and high-tech business growth within Fishermans Bend.

13. Recommendation 8: Remove the Development Plan Overlay.
The Development Plan Overlay (DPO) is proposed to apply to 61 Bertie Street.
The City of Port Phillip Stage 2 Submission proposes to extend the DPO to 155 Bertie Street.
This is an unnecessary and challenging control given:
It requires cooperation from all affected land owners.
It requires an unnecessary level of detail (plot ratio, building envelopes) to be determined at the DPO stage. This is already covered by the CCZ and DDO at the permit stage.
It requires the public benefit to be agreed prior to a building being designed.
Remove the Development Plan Overlay.

14. Recommendation 9:
A review of all controls needs to be undertaken to ensure:
Clarity of development expectations for all landowners
Accuracy and legibility of all mapping
Controls that can be clearly interpreted to have a single meaning.
Another issue that requires greater clarity is how the “Arts and Cultural Hub” and “Education and Community Hub” are to be treated when a planning application is being considered. There is no guidance on this at present.
Review the drafting of the policy to simplify the wording and remove contradictions in controls. This could be significantly improved by removing mandatory controls that have multiple exemptions.

15. New Issues Arising from the Copp Submission (Stage 1 and 2)
A 1 hectare park is proposed on 155 Bertie Street, over the existing Toyota headquarters building.
CoPP have stated that retaining Toyota is a key priority for Council.
However, the controls will constrain any further development of the site as any development will trigger the requirement to deliver the open space to Council.
The location of the park therefore sends a clear message to Toyota that they are not wanted in the long term.
155 Bertie Street

16. New issues arising from the Minister Part B submission
Obligations for the landowner to :
deliver the construction of roads ;
transfer roads and open space to the public authority via a Section 173 agreement at no cost to the authority
creates further inequity for those affected by proposed new roads and open space.
The mandatory cap on total floor area and removal of the ability to provide additional commercial floor area is a backwards step in incentivising commercial development in the Sandridge Precinct.
The reduction in the FAR from 8.1:1 to 7.4:1 creates further disincentive for commercial development.

17. Building Massing Study
Note: these studies have not been amended to respond to the revised Minister and City of Port Phillip proposed policy

18. Option A1 – MAX FAR within preferred heights
Core FAR = 8.1:1
Non-Core FAR = 3.7:1
Option A1 – MAX FAR within preferred heights

19. Option A2 – Subdivided sites with max FAR

20. Option A2A – Subdivided sites with max FAR and future road removed from far calculations

21. Option A3 – Existing CHQ Building with campus, reduced FAR in core

22. Option B1 – max FAR

23. Option B2 – max FAR with road widening & park removed from far calculations

24. Brendan rogers brogers@Urbis.com.au