BCNA Letter to Members Regarding House of Word Cultures Proposal for Princes Pier

Over the past month or so the BCNA has considered the proposal that Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) has put forward regarding a House of World Cultures (HoWC) on Princes Pier. We have a number of concerns with the proposal such as:

• the site is not close to an activity centre - which is necessary to attract people to the area;
• it has poor accessibility for regular access - it is some distance from public transport along a weather-exposed walkway;
• the area has limited parking, with both Pier and Beach Streets often quite congested;
• the proposed location abuts a residential area which, depending upon the nature of any activities and the hours of operation, has the potential to adversely impact on the amenity of nearby residents;
• the proposed structure, involving considerable use of shipping containers around the heritage-listed gatehouse, may not be compatibly with its historic legacies;
• and perhaps more significant than any of the above, the challenges of adverse weather on the pier might significantly detract from visitor use of the pier.

We have requested MAV to examine these concerns carefully and have encouraged them to arrange a community information session once they have developed their ideas sufficiently.

BCNA has not developed a position on the current proposal. A position will be established once consultation and feedback from members has occurred.

More details are outlined in a letter to members which can be downloaded here.

The MAV Proposal / Feasibility Report can be downloaded here (main report) and here (appendices).