Triple R has been headquartered at 221 Nicholson St, on the corner of Nicholson & Blyth, since 2004. The property at 122-124 Nicholson Street was a store and warehouse until it was sold last October.
The planning application by consultancy firm Urbis on behalf of Mandrian Development proposed six storeys with 28 dwellings, a retail tenant (a café), 31 car spaces and 16 bike spaces. The architect is Idle Architecture Studio.
In December, Moreland Council capped the building at four storeys. Mandrian Development is taking that issue to Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a hearing set for May 13.
The Age cites a submission that station manager Dave Houchin made to Moreland Council over the plan. He had “serious concerns” that the height of the building (its roof height is 19.7 metres according to the application) and the use of cranes during the construction could interrupt the signal from its 1.8 metre station’s antenna to a transmitter site in Dandenong.
“The antenna is aligned approximately parallel with Blyth Street to the east,” he said in the station’s submission. “Basically this means that it has quite a high gain but only over a fairly narrow angle. Its objective is to maximise the signal getting to the target-receive antenna some 35 kilometres away.”
Houchin was also concerned that the health and safety of the new residents could be affected due to their proximity of the radio mast.
