On 21 November 2023, I submitted a Right to Information application to the Hobart City Council (HCC) in which I sought:
I received the following response from the HCC today:
Comment
I’ll be very interested in any readers’ comments on the HCC’s letter.
I’ll limit myself to two points.
First, in my blog post UTAS works its baleful influence on the Mt Nelson & Sandy Bay Neighbourhood Plan, I stated:
“that the Discussion Paper is trying to create a scenario which requires the UTAS housing solution provided by CBD relocation and redevelopment of the Sandy Bay campus site. That is, the Discussion Paper has (artificially) created a problem which only the Messiah led UTAS can solve.”
I hold to that position, particularly in light of this paragraph in the HCC’s letter:
“It is important to note that when the assumptions were made for the last population forecast undertaken by .id Consulting, there appeared to be a greater level of intent by UTAS to pursue a more extensive level of residential development of the Sandy Bay campus because, at this point in time, the planning scheme amendment to rezone the land had not yet been withdrawn from Council. Therefore, assumptions regarding development in terms of yield were partly based on this possible outcome but also due to other location characteristics such as close proximity to the CBD, employment, shops and services and high amenity natural features.” (my bolding)
If the implication here is that UTAS’ withdrawal of the planning scheme amendment reflected a lessening of UTAS’ level of intent to pursue residential development, this should have been reflected in the Discussion Paper.
Second, the suggestion that UTAS may now have a lesser intent to pursue residential development on the Sandy Bay campus site is one of several possible hints about this recently. I DO NOT BELIEVE IT AND NEITHER SHOULD ANYONE ELSE. According to UTAS’ own dodgy figures, the only way it can make a ‘profit’ on relocation is to maximise residential development at the Sandy Bay campus site.
Of course, UTAS makes a huge loss from relocation on my more robust figures (even with full Sandy Bay redevelopment), and I will publish a major blog post on this after Christmas (the 2nd part of Deloitte reports should sound death knell for UTAS relocation – Part 1).
More work is needed on these rubbery figures.
20000 inc by 2050?? Ie 20000/53000 applied to 12600 in Sandy Bay or 4750. So where does 7850 by 2042 come from???
Once again the HCC assumes that UTAS will be developed in full
Lazy, unsubstantiated discussion paper that forces everyone to spend countless hours proving their assumptions are worthless. Meanwhile no one is discussing the real issues of a liveable city with open green spaces and a high class Uni.
According to the ABS Census data, the combined population of Mount Nelson and Sandy Bay increased by 642 people between the 2016 and 2021 Censuses (254 in Mount Nelson, 388 in Sandy Bay). Between the same 5-year period the number of households increased by 340 (67 and 73 respectively) while the number of motor vehicles increased by 895 (202 and 693 respectively). It seems farcical to imagine that the population of MN + SB will increase by 7,850 residents and 2,630 dwellings in the next 20 years, implying an increase in motor vehicles from 9,559 to 16,482. The Neighbourhood Plan is silent on the prospective increase in motor vehicles and the increased congestion to an already congested road system an extra 6,923 vehicles would generate. The Neighbourhood Plan says nothing about new roads or the expansion of existing roads. In fact it claims the opposite, focusing on public and active (sic) transport modes. Of the increase of commuters between 2016 and 2021, 91.2% travelled by car, whilst those travelling by bus increased by 30.6%, those using bike/motor bike and other modes decreased by 2.3%, and those walking to work declined by 16.1 %. The MN +SB Neighbourhood Plan is purely an exercise in wishful thinking based on fictitious ideological preferences.
Thank you for your perseverance, dedication, honesty and plain commonsense in your interrogation of the HCC and UTAS papers which are attempting to justify the madness of their moves to the CBD.