After much hemming and hawing, Melbourne’s St Kilda Triangle, home to iconic live music venue the Palais Theatre, will finally undergo the transformation Melburnians have been eagerly awaiting for some time now.
As The Age reports, Port Phillip Council are planning to spend up to to $400 million transforming the Triangle into a tourist hot spot, complete with two new live music spaces – a general performance space and an amphitheatre.
However, as Fairfax notes, the plan is rife with building jargon, with Melbourne University planning expert Associate Professor Alan March saying he’s concerned the public will find the plan difficult to understand.
“There has been a strong movement towards plain language in urban planning consultation and this would appear to go against that,” he said. For example, instead of saying they will plant more palm trees, the plan refers to “strengthening the theme of palm trees”.
The plan, which readers can view here in all its convoluted glory, also says there will be “concentrated ancillary activation” around the Palais Theatre, which roughly translated means smaller shops such as cafes and other activities.
Most interestingly, the plan may put to rest the 16-year debate over what to do with the car park site next to the Palais Theatre and Luna Park. A previous plan to build a $400 million retail, hotel, and tourist destination was met with public outrage.
This time around, the council is apparently looking to engage the community in the planning proceedings. Amongst the plans for the space are “a hotel and performance space behind the Palais Theatre” and “a small amphitheatre”.
Council planners are looking to complete their revamp by 2018 or 2019, allocating $700,000 to create a business case, final master plan, and delivery strategy. That comes on top of almost $9 million spent on the site since 2004.
