Chopper may stunt growth

DEVELOPERS will need special exemption to build tall buildings near Dandenong Hospital if a proposal to protect a medical helicopter’s flight path is approved.
Greater Dandenong Council this week resolved to have the state planning minister amend its planning scheme to ensure the hospital’s helicopter could take off and land without having to navigate tall buildings that could be built if there were no height restrictions in place.
A design and development overlay (DDO) stretching for almost a kilometre radius from the hospital will require any applications within the immediate vicinity to be referred to the council.
Other applications further out in the radius for four-storey buildings or higher must also be referred to the council.
An officer’s report states that without the amendment the emergency helicopter would find it difficult to transport trauma patients into and out of the hospital.
But a chunk of central Dandenong to the hospital’s north-west will be spared the DDO.
The officer’s report states this is because council had “initial concerns about loss of development potential of land”.
The DDO will be on public exhibition if the planning minister authorises the amendment.