'Excessive': Council and developers dealt a blow over multimillion-dollar plan

Developers who have spent half a billion dollars buying suburban blocks on Sydney's lower north shore have been dealt a blow, after an independent panel found plans to build high-rise apartments at the site were at odds with the area's character and amounted to "overdevelopment".

Over the past seven years, developers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring about 90 suburban lots to the south of St Leonards station and the Pacific Highway, in anticipation those lots would be rezoned for a "St Leonards South" residential precinct put forward by Lane Cove Council.

An artist's image of the proposed St Leonards South precinct.Credit: Department of Planning

Residents have been angered by the proposal, which would lead to the construction of about 2400 apartments in towers up to 19 storeys high spread across five streets.

Among the criticisms levelled at the scheme, which has been supported by the council as a way of delivering housing demanded by the state government, are concerns that it includes little open space, is poorly designed, and would over-stretch inadequate transport and social infrastructure.

Those concerns were largely echoed by the Independent Planning Commission, which says the proposal represents an "overdevelopment" in its advice on the proposal to the state government.

The advice to Planning Minister Rob Stokes, published on Wednesday, also says that rezoning the parcel of land to allow high-rise development is not necessary to meet the housing targets set by the Greater Sydney Commission.

Lane Cove mayor Pam Palmer was "happy to take advice" on the proposal but said the council needed to plan for population growth.

"We still think St Leonards is a good place to grow our population ... but if that plan isn't successful we'll take that on board," she said.

In its advice, the commission said the design and scale of residential development put forward in the planning proposal did not "respect or enhance the existing local character of the area".

Commission members Illona Miller, Russell Miller and Peter Cochrane raised concerns the amount of public open space was not enough for "estimated ten-fold increase in population".

They also feared taller buildings clustered in one part of the site would create a "monolithic street wall effect".

Supporters had argued the proposal would allow "an appropriate scale of development" in an area that is undergoing a "significant transition towards high density development and taller buildings".

But opponents condemned the scale of the planning proposal as "vastly excessive" and warned it would place "unacceptable pressure" on roads, schools and Royal North Shore Hospital.

"The scale of residential development proposed under the planning proposal would be out of character with the remainder of the St Leonards South Precinct and surrounding neighbourhoods," the commission advised.

The panel said that the Lane Cove area was on track to surpass the Greater Sydney Commission's target of 1900 extra dwellings by 2021, and no further housing targets had been set.

"The [panel] considers that no rezoning of the site is required to meet the current GSC's housing targets under its north district plan as the housing targets are currently likely to be exceeded without the proposed delivery of a further 2400 dwellings," the panel advised.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment said the government would consider the commission's advice as it prepared the final plan for St Leonards and Crows Nest.

Lane Cove Council would have an opportunity to consider its position on the planning proposal in light of the commission’s advice, the spokeswoman said.

"The department respects the differing views within the community and will continue to listen and work with all to ensure ongoing consultation."