News from Council Meeting - 9 November 2020

Published on 09 November 2020

The next meeting of the Hobart City Council will be the first to be held in person since March.

Meetings have been held via Zoom and livestreamed on the City of Hobart’s You Tube channel since in the COVID-19 restrictions caused the prevention of gatherings.

The meeting scheduled for 23 November will be held in the Council Chambers at the Hobart Town Hall, with a separate room allocated as a public gallery space in order to comply with ongoing density restrictions.

Meetings will continue to be livestreamed under the new meeting format.

Council Committees will independently determine whether to resume meeting in person or to continue in a virtual meeting format.

Up to $10,000 will be made available to Hobart charities and organisations to help make Christmas a little brighter for those in need.

The Festive Season Charitable Quick Response Grant will offer grants of up to $1000 to help deliver projects that support vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the community.

Such projects could include providing food hampers to people in need and Christmas gifts for disadvantaged or isolated community members.

The grant will open for applications this Friday 13 November.

The City of Hobart will work towards developing a draft Affordable Housing and Homelessness Commitment aimed at helping more Hobartians secure stable housing.

Targeted stakeholder engagement will be undertaken to inform the commitment, which will form part of an updated Housing and Homelessness Strategy.

An application to convert the upper levels of a retail premises in the Elizabeth Mall into five residential units has been approved by Council.

The proposal is for an existing four storeys of the former Kodak building to be transformed into residential apartments, with an additional storey to be added. The ground floor will continue as a retail space.

The proposal includes demolition of the heritage Kodak House sign on the front of the building. However, advice has been included for the proponent to consider removing and retaining the masonry and neon signs for display within the development.

In addition, the painted Kodak signage on the sides of the building will be recreated with identical fonts and dimensions, and the exterior of the building will retain the “Kodak yellow” colour scheme.

A proposed 10-storey residential development in the CBD has been refused on heritage grounds.

It was determined that the proposal – which includes 30 residential units and 21 student accommodation units – did not meet the acceptable solution under the planning scheme with regard to height, bulk and design of the buildings and would not make a positive contribution to the streetscape.