Hampden Avenue housing to be built above commercial car park

One landowner who wants to achieve just that has proposed to build skywards in the small CBD side street of Hampden Avenue, opposite Orange Civic Centre.

The development application, currently under assessment by Orange City Council, proposes a three-storey development of residential flats.

The ground floor would house 16 parking spaces in order to meet approval requirements for businesses at 1 Hampden Avenue and 261 Lords Place and short stay accommodation at 259 Lords Place, plus the residents above.

Meanwhile the second and third floors would house two three-bedroom units and one two-bedroom unit.

Designed by Source Architects, pitched rooflines and bricks are intended to tie the development in with the rest of Hampden Avenue, with the third floor set back.

While multi-storey housing might be less common in Orange than larger centres, Source Architects director Sally Sutherland said the CBD was zoned for building heights up to 16 metres, or four storeys, with "generous" limits on the amount of space a building could use on the block.

"The parking was part of the original development there and we made sure we didn't overdevelop the site, matching the parking to the space we could provide," she said.

"It is clearly a part of Orange City Council strategic plan to promote slightly taller and slightly denser development in the centre of town.

"These codes... will over some time make the city centre more dense and lively."

She said provided developments were appropriate and respectful to their setting, building up could allow more effective utilisation of land while minimising the need for infrastructure.