A new development plan for Hamilton, including a development scheme for “bonus floors”, was unveiled in the Senate yesterday by Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy.

The Draft City of Hamilton Plan 2015 is to go out for three months of public consultation on June 26.

Sen Fahy said it was the result of “years of consultation, research and meticulous review”.

“Its objectives and policies reflect the priorities for the City today, which include the need to repurpose much of the vacant floor space in the City and improve the pedestrian environment.”

The plan sets up key objectives for different areas, including development opportunities for zones identified as the historic and retail district, the contemporary business district and the residential and community district. It will replace a 2001 plan for the city, with the exception of Northeast Hamilton, which as a distinct area has its own designs underway.

The Hamilton plan lays out three “special study areas” for which public input will be sought: the waterfront, Par-la-Ville car park and City Hall car park. Policies covered in the plan include permitted uses, building heights, setbacks and parking.

Certain areas of the Island’s capital were identified as potentially eligible for “bonus floors”, Sen Fahy told The Royal Gazette.

The concept is guided by “the height of the ridge level of the Anglican Cathedral”, he said, and includes the impact of the view onto or view from any historic area of the city, to specify a maximum number of storeys for buildings.

“However, in some locations it is possible to accommodate higher buildings and, for those sites, the Board will have the discretion to permit a greater number of storeys, up to a particular maximum building height that is measured in feet,” Sen Fahy said.

In “bonus floor” locations, a building can be designed that incorporates more storeys than would normally be permitted as long as the overall maximum building height, as set out in feet rather than storeys, is not exceeded.

As an example, Sen Fahy cited the case of a building with bonus floors, which might have a maximum height of 112ft, that accommodated eight storeys where, seven storeys would normally be permitted.

“Adjusting the floor to ceiling height from, say, 14 feet to nine feet, allows for ten to 12 storeys to be accommodated within the same building envelope where, again, normally seven storeys is permitted,” he said.

The preferred design would be left for developers to determine.

“The Board can consider proposals involving bonus floors as long as the developer satisfies certain additional provisions,” Sen Fahy said.

“These include incorporating a significant residential and/or tourism component in the development along with community benefits to the public spaces — or, if preferred, the developer could donate to the listed building grant scheme an amount that would be the minimum of one per cent of the total development costs.

“Alternatively, the developer could consider some combination of the two options.”

Sen Fahy said guidelines on the listed building grant scheme would be issued “shortly”.