Carlingford high density unit plan at 169 Pennant Hills Rd scrapped
A plan to transform a part of a northwest Sydney into another high-density neighbourhood has been thwarted after being labelled premature and inappropriate. But the battle is not entirely over.
NSW
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Parramatta Council has applied the brakes on a plan that would allow multi-level unit blocks along a congested Carlingford road that is now home to dwellings no taller than two storeys.
In a win for a community fighting overdevelopment, the council this week supported a staff recommendation to refuse Urbanism’s plan to switch the 2910sq m land category from R2 low density to R4 high density on Pennant Hills Rd.
If the applicant was successful, building heights could have soared from nine metres to 20m, or two-three storeys to six levels.
The council unanimously supported plans to refuse the development, deeming it inconsistent with the local housing strategy that is mostly intensified along the Parramatta CBD to Epping corridor.
The site is 1.2km from the Carlingford light rail stop, which is slated to open in 2024.
The development is also considered inappropriate to meet housing targets after 2036, with the council already on track to meet figures the government set.
The council was the top local government area in NSW last financial year when it endorsed 12,282 new dwellings on rezoned land.
The council recommendation stated the Urbanism proposal was not considered suitable because it did not fall in Carlingford’s growth precinct and the development was “incompatible with the low density character of the area”.
“The proposed density and heights would result in an overdevelopment of the site, are inconsistent with the density and heights of nearby development, and are overbearing of nearby lower scale development,’’ the recommendation stated.
Labor councillor Ange Humphries labelled the plans inappropriate.
“Residents do not want it, and that’s the feedback we’ve been given, and I’m happy to support the officers’ recommendation very swiftly,’’ she said.
Independent councillor Georgina Valjak echoed the remarks, saying the development was “very much out of character of the surrounding R2 dwellings, two-storey residences’’.
However, despite the plans hitting a hurdle, the battle is not over and the applicant can still win approval from the state government.
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