Church angst over licensed backpackers By Mike Hast ST Peter’s Church will build a new entrance to its office and meeting rooms after shire councillors last week approved a three-storey backpacker lodge with a rooftop bar in narrow Octavia St, Mornington, overlooking the historic church. The lodge will hold 110 people in 21 rooms. It is permitted to have 80 people in the first floor licensed area and 80 people on the rooftop bar until midnight, all entering the building from Octavia St, opposite an existing church entrance. St Peter’s vicar Rev Jan St James says the church and its members are disappointed with the decision. “We have many unhappy parishioners,” she said on Tuesday. “We will be forced to build a new entrance in Queen St utilising the house we own next to the front of the church.” Rev St James says the Octavia St laneway entrance is used by 500-600 people each week. “We are a seven day a week operation with church services on Sunday, playgroup five days a week, support groups for carers of elderly frail and disabled folk, exercise groups, a ballet school that has been running for 30 years, music programs for preschoolers and youth, our opportunity shop, and people visiting the church office.” She said the backpacker lodge would overlook the church and its courtyard, which is used as a children’s play area, a gathering place after funerals and other events, and was to have a memorial garden where the ashes of the deceased were interred. “The lodge will have a detrimental impact on our services.” The church is also concerned the lodge will block sun from the courtyard from May until late August. “This is unacceptable for a series of buildings and activities that rely on natural light for their good usage; cheerfulness and warmth for our activities,” Rev St James said. “We are most concerned this will be a licensed venue. It will add to the already abundant outlets for alcohol in the area given the issue of overuse and anti-social use of alcohol by young people. “We already battle on a weekly basis with empty and broken bottles over our fence and on the church doorstep, cleaning up of vomit and other rubbish.” She said there was concern over the lack of a traffic and noise study, and how security and management issues would be handled.
Proposed backpacker lodge
High times: Aerial diagram showing the location of the proposed three-storey backpacker lodge with its rooftop bar and entrance on narrow Octavia St (blue outline), opposite St Peter’s Church on the corner of Queen and Octavia Sts (bottom centre with dark roof) and Bellamy Hall on Albert St (white roof).
Shire planner Nicholas Harrison told councillors the backpacker lodge was listed as 39 Main St, but was behind La Porchetta restaurant and had its entrance in Octavia St. He recommended councillors approve the application. Victoria Police was asked to comment and told the council the concept of a backpackers and a licensed area the size applied for was at odds with the amenity of the area. “The inclusion of a backpackers residential component in this application in my view does not assist in justifying the establishment of a tavern,” the writer said. “Main Street, Mornington, is a well serviced strip for licensed premises, as is the Esplanade with four more licensed premises in that area. “The issue surrounding this area is the increased public order offences occurring due to alcohol from these premises which police are attempting to curb both through targeted operations and the Liquor Accord meetings. “The addition of premises with a general licence to this area will further compound the problems being experienced by affecting the amenity of the
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area.” Backpacker lodge proponent is developer Joseph Alesci, a Mornington resident who has a law firm in Rosebud and is the eldest son of Giovanni Alesci, who operated the popular Deli By The Sea in the town for many years and now runs McCrae General Pizzeria. Joseph Alesci is the developer of Centrepoint in Red Hill South, now called the Red Hill Epicurean Centre and due to open this summer with a mixture of shops, a restaurant and apartments. The family also established Rose GPO restaurant and bar in Rosebud in the early 2000s, and another son, David, operates Mediterraneo restaurant at 1 Queen St, Mornington. Mr Alesci told councillors he wanted to make efficient use of his land and the project was a high-quality, welldesigned backpacker lodge using expensive building materials. There would be family suites and a dormitory, and the lodge would add to the diversity of Mornington. “Tourism statistics show backpackers stay longer and spend more money
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than other visitors,” he said. Mr Alesci said if getting the project approved depended on the hours the rooftop deck operated, he would reduce them. Later he agreed to serving last drinks at 11.30pm and closing at midnight, 30 minutes earlier than planned. He still has to obtain a liquor licence from Liquor Licensing Victoria. “The rooftop deck is where guests and their friends can have a glass of wine or a cup of tea,” he said. “There will be no amplified music and entry will be monitored. It’s a residential hotel, not a high-risk venue. I used to own the Bay Hotel and the Social, and the lodge is not designed to be a high-risk venue.” He said Mornington had welcomed tourists for a very long time. Cr Bev Colomb, who represents Mornington on the council, spoke strongly against the proposal and moved a motion that the backpacker lodge would have an unacceptable impact on activities at St Peter’s Church and its 150-year heritage, and that the sale and consumption of liquor would have a cumulatively negative impact
on the surrounding area. The motion was defeated and a second motion approving the lodge was carried. Crs Colomb, Leigh Eustace and mayor Graham Pittock voted against approval. Voting for the lodge were Crs Antonella Celi, Tim Rodgers, David Gibb, Bill Goodrem, Frank Martin, Anne Shaw and Reade Smith. Cr Lynn Bowden was absent from the meeting. Mr Alesci will have to meet a raft of standard conditions relating to building materials and setbacks, car parking, security, noise, guest numbers, construction and environmental management plan, building hours, traffic management, waste management, drainage and more. He has four years to build the lodge. Mr Alesci agreed to liaise with St Peter’s to minimise any adverse impacts at the church on sensitive event days, although Rev St James said Mr Alesci owned the building, but would not run the lodge.
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Bentons Square Phone: 5975 5720 Mornington News 25 August 2011
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