News / Planning
Concert hall to be upsized after VCAT decision
Residents lose their appeal against music venue
Mark Phillips
A NEW music venue in Brunswick will be allowed to have an audience capacity three-quarters more than originally permitted by Merri-bek Council following a determination by the state planning tribunal.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has lifted the capacity of the proposed cabaret-style venue in Colebrook Street from 500 to 875 in a blow to a group of neighbouring residents who had campaigned to prevent the project going ahead.
VCAT ruled in favour of developers Americana Property Holdings, which is controlled by rich lister and Richmond Football Club president John O’Rourke and his family, after the company had appealed against conditions attached to the permit the council granted in December 2023.
In a decision released on January 8, VCAT members Ian Potts and Jane Tait issued a new permit with a larger audience capacity than allowed by the council.
Americana plans to spend at least $17 million redeveloping an historic bluestone grain warehouse into a state-of-the-art music venue to host local and international touring artists.
The vacant building, at 11-17 Colebrook Street, is part of a complex of four bluestone warehouses that were commissioned by Donald Melville, a successful politician and businessman in 1888 and used to store grain. It directly faces the Upfield railway line.
Later owned by the State Electricity Commission, it was saved from demolition in the mid-1980s.
It is in an area that is zoned for industrial use and the street is mostly made up of commercial and light industrial businesses, including a bus depot and an accident repair shop, although another of the former warehouses at the corner of Tinning Street was converted into 22 residential dwellings in the 2000s. The building is separated by a rear laneway from houses in Cassels Road.
The December 2023 meeting of the council’s Planning and Related Matters committee approved the proposal 4-3 but scaled back the venue’s capacity from 875 to 500 and reduced its opening hours, while also attaching other conditions including noise abatement and crowd control.
The approval followed 87 objections against the project, with concerns which included noise, anti-social behaviour, including drug use, and traffic and parking issues.
Americana’s concept includes an innovative “box within a box” design in its interior to enhance sound quality within the venue and to minimise external noise. The project’s working title is the Bluestone Music Hall.
VCAT heard appeals against the council permit from Americana and a group of local residents over two weeks last August. While Americana was seeking to remove the conditions attached to the permit, the residents were seeking to overturn the permit entirely.
In their decision, the VCAT members said the benefits from the project outweighed the impact on local residents. They also said that the nature of the local semi-industrial and commercial environment in Colebrook Street meant that residents living nearby “should not expect that same level of residential amenity as those deeper within residential neighbourhoods”.
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“Americana’s proposal would result in an acceptable planning outcome, and on balance result in a net community benefit and represent sustainable development,” they said.
James O’Rourke from Americana said the company was “obviously thrilled” at the outcome of the VCAT hearing, but would not make any further comment until its backers had met early next month to consider their next steps.
Michael Moore, who lives near the warehouse and was a representative of 33 residents at the VCAT hearing, said the development was inappropriate for the neighbourhood.
He said residents were dismayed that their objections had been rejected by the council and later by VCAT.
“This is a community that lives with an industrial presence, but it’s a quiet area in the evenings and on weekends,” he said.
“A large entertainment venue that brings up to 875 people into the neighborhood every night and into the early hours of the morning will have a major impact on our amenity. It will cause traffic and parking problems, noise, and potentially anti-social behaviour issues.
“There are plenty of spaces within Brunswick’s main activity centre for live music venues. You need to get the balance right, but in this case they didn’t.”
VCAT has attached 32 conditions to the permit, including a restriction of 180 on the number of events that can be held at the venue in a calendar year. The venue will be allowed to operate from 6pm to 11pm on Sunday to Thursday, and until 1am on Friday and Saturday, with its foyer bar required to close at 10pm every night.
This story was updated on September 28 to clarify the venue is not fully-seated and to correct several other minor errors from the original story about this project published in December 2023.
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