And Gateway does have its supporters, such as Hamish Macdonald, the deputy managing director of Becton, the company that owns the Esplanade Hotel site in St Kilda, and Evan Walker, the former Cain Government Planning Minister and now a professor at Melbourne University's Faculty of Architecture. Macdonald argues that the Gateway document reflects sensible strategic planning. It outlines clear conservation areas, the future of redundant industrial land and future recreational development. And, he says, it identifies areas of Port Melbourne and St Kilda for development, with the heritage suburbs in between remaining unchanged. It gets away from adhoc planning.
People live in fear of the Gold Coast.
He maintains that claims that Gateway would lead to a high-rise fence around the bay trivialise a comprehensive plan. Walker, too, emphasises the need for overseeing orderly development. He adds, however, that it is an urban design document rather than a detailed planning scheme and that high-rise is inappropriate for the village atmosphere of Bay Street, Port Melbourne. He rejects suggestions that allowing high-rise in designated areas means it will inevitably spread along the bay. Strict planning controls and an agreed approach between state and local government could prevent that.