Another 15 apartments will be added to Metrowest’s three-tower complex in Sunshine.
Brimbank council last week approved plans to add 15 more apartments, one new retail tenancy and 12 more car parking spaces to stage two of the
$158 million development.
When finished, the Metrowest development, spanning three apartment blocks on the corner of Foundry and Hampshire roads, will have 272 apartments, 27 shops and 15,000 square metres of office space.
The first of three stages of the development is nearing completion.
Brimbank council administrator Jane Nathan said the council had met with the applicant, architect and project manager of the development and expressed concerns about the size of the apartments and balconies. The proposed smaller, one-bedroom apartments are 43 square metres.
The council approved a motion to increase the balcony size on some of the apartments but set no guidelines for the size of the apartments.
This is despite draft Victorian apartment design standards, now being prepared for state Planning Minister Matthew Guy, which will state that studio apartments must be at least 37 square metres and one-bedroom apartments at least 50 square metres.
Ms Nathan said the council could not do anything about the size of the apartments, which would vary upwards from 43 to 47 square metres, because the 50-square-metre guideline had not yet been approved at state government level.
Charlene Macaulay
