Local and state governments ‘powerless’ to stop demolition of five-year-old Melbourne building

The Victorian government believes it is powerless to stop an apartment block in North Melbourne – built only five years ago – from being knocked down.

The City of Melbourne voted on Tuesday night to approve the demolition of the RMIT Village development and turn it into a new 19-storey student housing building, with build-to-rent apartments.

The deputy mayor, Nicholas Reece, said the council was powerless to stop the demolition from going ahead.

“Despite the concerns raised about the demolition of a five-year-old building, there was nothing in the Victorian planning scheme or the City of Melbourne planning regulations which meant that we could do anything other than approve the project from proceeding,” Reece said.

“There’s nothing in current state, federal or local laws which prevent existing buildings from being demolished other than heritage factors.”

It’s understood the state government also believes it has no specific planning controls to direct developers to consider the age of a building, unless it is on heritage grounds.

In response to questions, a government spokesperson said: “Although the commercial decision to obtain the necessary approvals needed to demolish a building ultimately falls with the developer, there is strong policy support to ensure new builds are designed and constructed sustainably and ecologically.”

“The state planning policy encourages the use of recycled and reusable materials in building construction and to undertake adaptive reuse of buildings where practical,” the spokesperson said.

A town planner representing the developer at Tuesday’s meeting told councillors that it was not viable to redevelop the site using retrofitting.

“While it is always useful where possible to retrofit, from my understanding that was not an option in the viability of actually succeeding to develop this site,” she said.

“I know that all options were considered.”

Reece said as the nation was moving towards net zero emissions, it was imperative to reduce waste and look towards viable alternatives to demolition, such as retrofitting.

Last month, the council launched its long-term plan to retrofit the city’s buildings, which Reece said accounted for 66% of all carbon emission​s across the City of Melbourne.

The plan said the council needed more than 80 buildings to be retrofitted each year for it to reach its goal of net zero emissions by 2040, but currently it was only retrofitting seven a year.

To tackle this, Reece said the council was considering introducing a rates mechanism that would see property owners who consider retrofitting options ahead of demolition rewarded with reduced rates.

Another option also being canvassed is binding emissions caps on buildings, similar to Local Law 97, which is set to come into effect next year in New York City.

The law creates limits that are scheduled to get progressively tougher until 2050, when the city hopes to have achieved complete carbon neutrality.

“At a time when we are pushing towards zero emissions and zero waste, it is just unacceptable to be constructing and demolishing disposable buildings,” Reece said.