Clover Moore stifles Sydney development after alternative Waterloo plan approved

Lord Mayor Clover Moore has been accused of using propaganda to make a NSW Government scheme to revamp housing in Waterloo look “black and aggressive” after Sydney City Council gave the green light to Ms Moore’s alternative plans yesterday.

• Clover accused of declaring war on Sydney

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has been accused of using propaganda to make a NSW Government scheme to revamp housing in Waterloo look “black and aggressive”.

Sydney City Council yesterday gave the green light to an alternative plan for the trouble plagued Waterloo Housing Estate that will be presented to the public on Wednesday night.

Urban Taskforce chief executive Chris Johnson said the Council’s “manipulation” of the way the two schemes was portrayed was “outrageous”.

Urban Taskforce has accused the Council of using “manipulative” images to make the government’s scheme look dark and foreboding. Picture: Supplied

The Council imagery in contrast is light, filled with trees and depicted from ground level. Picture: Supplied

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He said Ms Moore’s report “uses manipulative images that deliberately make her scheme look green and friendly and the government’s scheme look dark and foreboding.

“This manipulation of the two schemes is outrageous and is clearly aimed at garnering support for her scheme,” he said.

The Council’s depiction of the NSW Government plan depicts all the buildings as black monoliths. By contrast its own view shrouds the buildings in trees.

City of Sydney proposal …

The NSW Government’s plan for the same area.

Mr Johnson said the reality was Ms Moore’s low rise plan created buildings in rows like “a military barracks” or a “Russian housing estate”.

“This is not what the renewal of a social housing estate should set out to do,” he said.

“We need a friendly environment that is not over regimented. We need to move on from the existing grey brutalist buildings on the site to white and colourful buildings as shown in the government’s scheme,” he said.

Clover Moore pictured at Redfern Oval on the weekend before the council vote.

He said the Government scheme, which had more space and green areas because of the high towers, “is much looser, less authoritarian, has a variety of green spaces, a variety of building type and is less institutional.”

A spokesman said the City of Sydney had used darker colours of “brown, mid brown, dark orange and yellow, to differentiate between the height of the buildings .”

He said detail of the NSW Government proposal had been “hidden behind glossy brochures and artist impressions that give no indication of their proposal’s actual scale.

“Our plan is about better public spaces. Our plan has wider streets and will retain more trees in the area, including on the streets. It has a central park that isn’t shrouded in shadow by 17 towers up to 40 storeys high like the NSW Government’s proposal,” he said.

Ms Moore said the “shocking and unprecedented” NSW Government plan, which includes two parks, would create a housing “ghetto” with “Hong Kong density”.

The Lord Mayor has also objected to a proposed office tower at Cockle Bay Wharf because it will block sunlight after 4pm to a square at Town Hall that does not exist and a new luxury hotel tower at The Star in Pyrmont.

But not everyone on the City Council agrees. Sydney City councillor Christine Forster said the council’s amended proposal for Waterloo was “empire building” by the Lord Mayor.

NSW government plan for the development behind Redfern Oval …

And the Council’s imagery of their approved development plan.

And she said the proposed hotel at Pyrmont would ease the city’s tight hotel occupancy levels and be “an elegant addition to the city’s burgeoning skyline.

“The Lord Mayor thinks she should have absolute power to dictate everything that happens in the city of Sydney, but if we had left it in her hands we would not now be enjoying the world class CBD precinct of Barangaroo. If it were up to her, tall iconic new buildings would have no place in our global city,” she said.

An aerial view of the Council’s scheme …

Councillor Craig Chung said the new hotel proposal “will deliver a much needed community hub. This facility will provide multiple public venues such as meeting and conference space, library social enterprise cafe. I know the Pyrmont community is looking forward to that part of the project.”

Meriton founder and managing director Harry Triguboff said: “Sydney’s potential is definitely far more superior than anything else we have in Australia.”

But despite that he said: “If we look at Melbourne and Brisbane we are lagging far behind.”

And he laid the blame squarely at the feet of the Lord Mayor. “We have situation where the City of Sydney is not controlled the same way as the other councils.

And the NSW Government proposal.

“Originally the idea was because it wasn’t controlled by anyone that they would be moving the quickest but this is not what happened.

“Getting approvals with the City can take 10 times longer than similar developments in other parts of the country like the Gold Coast and much longer than other Council’s around Sydney.”

Mr Triguboff said it meant Sydney was missing out. “This is where we should be getting the quickest approvals to maximise jobs, housing and amenity to provide the best place in Australia for locals and our growing tourism industry,” he said.