By a concerned Middle Park resident

We understand that the Middle Park Hotel has sought planning approval for 4th floor (i.e., rooftop). This development is within 500m of our house. The proposed additional patrons will be able to access this rooftop venue, with open air noise issues, seven days a week, after 11pm (until we understand 1am). We strongly object to this proposed development. We consider this inappropriate development for what is essentially a residential neighbourhood. We are well served by licensed venues, and it is clear they are trying to create a 'destination' venue rather than serving local patrons. The ‘open air’ nature of the proposed development in a rooftop setting will clearly cause nuisance and disturbance. 

The significant noise from a venue of this nature, particular on the rooftop, will inevitably create nuisance and disturbance, which in turn will depress residential utility and local residential prices. I understand that their consulting acoustic engineers have suggested that the crowd of 200 will generate 104db - a limited search on Google suggests that noise levels over 100db are potentially dangerous to human hearing. It is unclear whether these levels of noise are before or after adding in the music (whether from an acoustic group or a DJ – who can play any sort of loud music they choose). Either way, the idea that this will not impact as a nuisance at street level is a complete nonsense. Furthermore, as the noise is being generated on the 4th floor it will be heard at far greater distances than if it was at ground level in an enclosed building. Now we can hear music from events being held at locations in Albert Park, so having a source of noise that much closer will clearly cause disturbance.

Furthermore, it is proposed that this venue will be open "after 11.00pm on seven days of the week"; so, the nuisance and inconvenience that this proposed development is not something that will happen on a few occasions a year; if allowed it will be something they can open every day of the week. The license they are applying for effectively goes through to 1 am - they say that the actual trading hours "are generally" for shorter periods. This is disingenuous - what the current trading hours are is not relevant to what they will be if this development goes ahead. It will be in their commercial interest to maximise the return on their investment in this development and nothing to stop them opening until 1am on almost every day. 

Whilst our major concern is the level of noise that will emanate from this rooftop development, it will also create significant issues with parking, crowd dispersal (especially late at night/early morning when the venue eventually closes), waste management (the bins from this venue are already substantial and it is unclear where they will store the additional waste). They are suggesting reducing car parking, whilst increasing the patron capacity, which seems counterintuitive - it will inevitably lead to residential parking in adjoining streets being used by patrons and staff). They say there is an "absence of residential premises within close proximity of the site" – we are unclear what their definition of "close proximity" is, but approximately 60% of the 500m radius on their own map is residential (the balance being Albert Park. Despite this being a significant proposed development, with profound impacts on the character of the neighbourhood, as a local resident we were not asked about this when the initial planning application was made; the City of Port Phillip goes on about how they communicate with residents, however in this case there was no communication - it would have been relatively easy for the City of Port Philip to have emailed residents in the area that will be impacted by the noise.

We reiterate that we strongly object to this planning application.