Fremantle Ports’ plans for Victoria Quay will be presented to council this month before they are released to the public.

The port authority described the new plans as a ”distillation of where things have got to” from discussions held with stakeholders.

Various options have surfaced since the failed $350 million ING project, the latest includes room for 10-storey buildings on the waterfront site.

But the plans, by skatepark designers CODA, have already drawn criticism from council architects who were shown the plans a few weeks ago.

They were not invited to comment, despite it being one of the biggest redevelopments in Fremantle in decades (“Quay plan slammed,” Herald, July 20, 2013).

It is not clear if the plans meet the council’s masterplan criteria for the waterfront.

An architect who wrote to other panel members with his concerns says Fremantle Ports has chosen, “a crude, ham-fisted approach and it is debatable if their current proposal would be taken up by the market”.

He says the heights proposed will compromise views from future developments in the city centre.

“One reason for increasing building heights in the city centre was to offer the potential for better views. Taller buildings on the wharf compromise this potential.”

by CARMELO AMALFI