The university reveals its plans for a Hobart CBD campus, which “blends university and city life”

Back in March Vice Chancellor Rufus Black promised a draft plan about now, and lo! it was released yesterday.

While the university is at pains to point out that this is but a draft, presented for community consultation it rather appears that the university is ready to go.

The plan includes a big pitch for community support, emphasising sustainability, amenity and Indigenous heritage. This is wise, in earlier versions a city-move was not universally well regarded by resident, (CMM April 23 2019).

The substance of this scheme is moving the university’s teaching and learning into five city precincts. The first stage is set to start, with the project planned to be pretty much complete by 2030.

As for the university’s Sandy Bay campus, “master-planning will commence in the coming months to deliver a world-leading example of a sustainable urban community.” Which will presumably rquire rezoning some of the site – this needs to be sorted after the university lost a zoning case in the Supreme Court last year.

As to paying for what is an enormous expansion on what is already a significant property development programme  – the university has a plan to spend $500m, funded by debt and “balance sheet optimisation,” (CMM March 9).