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Speak up, architects urged

Staff ReporterWestern Suburbs Weekly

Mr Lewis, who has designed houses throughout the Town and the western suburbs, said while the policy was well intentioned, it was too blunt in applying one rule for all developments regardless of the housing density, and could devalue properties.

He said preventing new houses from having a double garage wider than 50 per cent of the site would be especially difficult on a standard 10m-wide subdivision site in Wembley.

Cambridge Mayor Simon Withers said that aspect of the policy was to deliberately deter an undesirable form of development and architects should consider streetscape when designing.

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‘It’s a wonderful hypothetical, but if you drive around where people have lots of concrete in their frontages it is extremely ugly, but when they have gardens it’s quite beautiful,’ he said.

‘You have to start designing sympathetically to our streetscape. Stop putting up houses that look like storage developments.’

Mr Lewis also said the requirement of a minimum 60 per cent landscaping in front yards left no room for driveways in medium density houses and overlooked quality for quantity.

‘You could have 60 per cent of your frontage in dead weeds and it would comply, but if you have 20 per cent with a nice mature tree, some nice bushes and attractive paving, that wouldn’t apply,’ he said.

The Town of Cambridge is holding a forum on streetscape policy for industry professionals on Wednesday, September 25. RSVP is required.