Gladesville Shopping Village plans not worthy of ‘dignified response’ say residents

ONLY 100 feedback forms were submitted on plans for the controversial 26-storey Gladesville Shopping Village development, which has residents fearing the worst.

Concept not worthy of ‘dignified response’

A DISAPPOINTING community response to plans for the 26-storey Gladesville Shopping Village development has residents fearing they could be lumped with a building they don’t want.

Recent consultation sessions revealing a draft plan for the development only garnered around 100 responses from the public. The plan involves an 87m tower, 300 residential apartments and more than 9000sq m of retail shopping space.

The building will also have five storeys underground, with parking for both shopping centre visitors and residents, and three smaller buildings surrounding the central tower, the tallest at 15 storeys.

Gladesville Community spokesman Russell Young said a low response rate indicated the community’s disappointment with the developer’s concept.

Concept image of the proposed Gladesville Shopping Village development application.

“I think it indicates people don’t consider the concept worthy of being dignified with a response, being so badly out of touch with what the community has already said it wants,” he said.

The developers will need to submit a planning proposal to the Department of Planning, to adjust the local environmental plan’s maximum building heights for the area.

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Mr Young said any planning changes would set a dangerous precedent for heights in the area and traffic issues would be even more problematic this time around, with between 300 and 360 residential apartments instead of the 180 included in the previous application in 2013.

“The ability for a developer to bypass local government using the Gateway process is a widely criticised aspect of the State Government’s approach to managing planning and development,” he said.

This is how the corner of Flagstaff St and Massey St will look if the application is successful.

“We also don’t believe that the road infrastructure can support traffic movements. We are looking to Hunters Hill Council to reassure us it will not proceed with the privately negotiated sale of land to the developer, to support this development, or any application that would use the state government’s Gateway approval process.”

The project team said the feedback would “assist to better understand the needs, desires and concerns of the community and inform further design options”.

A development application and planning proposal are expected later this year.