Plans for 5000 homes at Kogarah Golf Club changed after heavy opposition
A subsidiary of John Boyd Properties, helmed by the property tycoon of the same name, has its plan to move the club to put up 5000 new homes hit into the rough.
NSW
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Plans years in the making to relocate the Kogarah Golf Club to make way for 5000 new homes in Sydney’s south appear to have been hit into the rough.
Now a new scheme for a vastly smaller e-commerce hub and tourist accommodation has emerged for the area.
In a letter to golf club members last month, club president Stephen Law said “consistent opposition to residential development on the site” had prompted their development partners Cook Cove Inlet Pty Ltd to dump the massive housing project.
The developer, a subsidiary of John Boyd Properties helmed by the property tycoon of the same name, will instead apply for a “rezoning outcome” which will allow e-commerce warehousing – commonly used as a distribution centre for online deliveries – and tourist accommodation in the shadows of Sydney Airport.
“A smaller and repurposed planning proposal is being prepared for briefing the Planning Panel … despite the fact that this means forgoing the opportunity for a larger and more profitable development opportunity,” Mr Law states in the letter.
Mr Law said the updated proposal would be limited to 380,000 square metres of Gross Floor Area, compared to the 568,000sqm which had been slated for the residential properties.
It’s a blow to a proposal nearly two decades in the making to secure the privately owned golf club’s future by shifting it south of the M5. Plans to move the golf course south, valued at more than $100 million, were lodged in 2016, but were later withdrawn after 830 submissions were received.
The convoluted process to rezone land in the northern sector has also hobbled plans to bring forward the project, with land along the boundary of the northern precinct currently being used as a works area for the WestConnex southern extension.
“A satisfactory resolution appears likely eventually … once work on the southern extension concludes, which is expected in 2025,” Mr Law said.
Community groups have long opposed the relocation of the golf course, which would result in the new 18-hole facility being built across 52ha, including Barton Park, the heritage-listed Arncliffe Market Gardens, and multiple wetlands.
In a report to members in 2016 Kogarah Golf Club said securing the future of the club was behind their support to relocate the course south of the M5.
“The most significant issue for the Club remains a lack of security of tenure for the land comprising the golf course as we know it,” the report said.
That report also stated the club only owns 18.5ha of the 39.03ha site “and (the club) can only control its destiny within these confines”.
John Boyd Properties and Bayside Council were contacted for comment.
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Originally published as Plans for 5000 homes at Kogarah Golf Club changed after heavy opposition
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