Hamton, Hostplus cleared for 539 Moonee Ponds homes, $323m

It describes the approval as another move to turn former racecourse land into higher-density housing, parkland, and commercial and retail uses. It says the racing club’s redevelopment, begun in 2011, could ultimately yield 2,000 homes.

For developers and builders working on Victorian apartment projects, the report shows a major residential proposal with an affordable housing component that was assessed under a state-level pathway and cleared. The Urban Developer says the higher density was backed largely because the site is close to the Moonee Ponds town centre, transit, jobs and community facilities.

The numbers

The Urban Developer reports the three buildings as Wilson East, Track East and Track Central, designed by DKO Architects with landscape architecture by Tract. They will offer one, two and three-bedroom apartments.

• Track East, the tallest, rises 23 storeys at 86 metres.
• Track Central is 21 storeys at 69.5 metres.
• Wilson East is 16 storeys at 62 metres.

The stage has 79,641 sqm of gross floor area, 518 basement car spaces and 545 bicycle spaces, plus communal open space and landscaping.

Twenty per cent of the homes, at least 108, are to be affordable. All of them sit in Wilson East. The outlet says that building was revised to lift its yield from 152 to 185 apartments after feedback from a community housing provider that has yet to be named. By our arithmetic that is 33 more apartments. Citing the planning assessment report, it says the changes include a greater proportion of studio and one-bedroom apartments in the tower.

Three objections were lodged during public notification, citing bulk, neighbourhood character, traffic, parking and amenity. The outlet says the assessment concluded the project could proceed with design refinements and permit conditions covering wind, landscaping, building interfaces and CityLink noise.

What’s next

The Urban Developer does not give a planning record number or a decision date in the article, and we have not independently opened the assessment report, so the conditions above are as the outlet reports them. The community housing provider for the affordable homes is not yet named.

For context, the outlet lists a separate approved Cox Place precinct at the same masterplan: close to 1,100 apartments split between two build-to-rent buildings and two build-to-sell towers, along with a hotel, shops and offices overlooking the racetrack.

Developers and builders can track the housing provider appointment, as the outlet links the provider’s feedback to the Wilson East revision.