SOUTHBANK could soon be the precinct that skyscrapers killed, residents fear, with planning applications lodged for three giant towers – one almost as tall as Eureka Tower, Melbourne’s tallest building.

Planning applications have been lodged in recent weeks for a 71-storey tower with 592 apartments and 566 car parking spaces at the site of the Queensbridge Hotel, Southbank.

The proposed Queensbridge Tower would be the second-tallest building in Melbourne at 275 metres.

A stone’s throw away at 25 Queens Bridge Street, an application has been lodged for a 66-storey mixed-use development and at nearby 54-56 Clarke Street an application has been lodged for a 56-storey mixed-use development.

The planning applications come as Melbourne City Council considers a new planning blueprint for the area, including mandatory height controls.

Southbank Residents Group acting president Joe Bagnara warned Southbank was becoming little more than termite mounds filled with people.

”You go to central Australia and see these huge pillars … thousands and thousands of residents inside these high-rise buildings,” he said. Mr Bagnara said the area needed proper planning. ”Where’s our football ground, where’s our playground, where’s our piazza, where are all the things that are needed to make living comfortable,” he questioned. ”It will be worse than Hong Kong,” he said.

The proposed Queensbridge Tower will be built adjacent to the Freshwater Place residential tower at Southbank.

Peter Renner, from the Freshwater Place body corporate, said: ”Our residents are absolutely outraged and appalled that something that size could be built within eight metres of Freshwater Place.”

”The complete western side, 248 apartments, would suddenly be completely blocked from the sunlight,” he said.

The applications will be decided by Planning Minister Matthew Guy.

Source: The Age