SAVE MORTIMER STREET TODAY TO SAVE YOUR OWN STREET TOMORROW!

SAY NO TO 20 APARTMENTS BEING BUILT ON A RESIDENTIAL BLOCK! 20 APARTMENTS IS NOT A TRANSITION

* IMPORTANT: Signing this petition does not replace lodging a formal planning objection. Anyone who wants Banyule City Council to formally consider their individual concerns should also lodge their own objection directly with Council. A formal objection can be lodged here. *

You can view the proposed planning permit here. *

Mortimer Street is an established residential street of predominantly single homes, gardens and mature trees.

Planning Application P245/2026 proposes 20 apartments across 29–35 Mortimer Street.

This is not about opposing new housing. Heidelberg will grow.

The issue is where the higher-intensity development should sit, and how it should transition into residential streets like Mortimer Street.

Banyule’s own Heidelberg planning work says development should provide a “suitable transition in the scale of development” between the activity-centre core and more sensitive residential areas.

It even refers to “modest sized buildings” at sensitive residential interfaces.

This site is not in Heidelberg’s commercial core. In practical walking terms, it is approximately:

1.3 km to Heidelberg Station
1.2 km to Rosanna Station
900 m to the nearest part of Burgundy Street

Banyule itself argued that Heidelberg’s growth catchment should be based on actual walking distance, not “as the crow flies”, and sought to reduce higher-growth areas that extended beyond an 800 m walkable catchment.

So being within the broader outer catchment should not mean development here is treated the same as land beside the station or Burgundy Street.

And what is proposed here?
20 apartments
Five physical levels
26 basement car spaces
A further subterranean storage level
Large elevated rooftop terraces
Two new vehicle crossings
Complete removal of onsite vegetation

That is not a gradual transition into an established residential street. It is an abrupt jump in scale, intensity and built form.

The proposal also removes a protected substantial tree, relies heavily on future replacement canopy, and places large elevated outdoor areas and major excavation immediately beside existing homes.

WE SUPPORT APPROPRIATE HOUSING GROWTH.
WE DO NOT SUPPORT POORLY MANAGED TRANSITION.

We ask Banyule City Council to refuse P245/2026 in its current form or require a substantially redesigned proposal that better transitions from Heidelberg’s activity-centre core into Mortimer Street’s residential environment.

20 APARTMENTS IS NOT A TRANSITION.

* IMPORTANT: Signing this petition does not replace lodging a formal planning objection. Anyone who wants Banyule City Council to formally consider their individual concerns should also lodge their own objection directly with Council. A formal objection can be lodged here. *

You can view the proposed planning permit here.