Dural Health Hub: Hornsby Council vote against private health facility planning proposal

Plans for a private health hub, featuring day surgery, specialist rooms and a medical centre in Sydney’s northwest have received unanimous disapproval by councillors.

Bold plans for a state-of-the-art health hub at Dural, featuring day surgery, specialist consultation rooms and a medical centre, have been squashed by Hornsby Council.

Councillors unanimously voted not to support a proposal to change planning controls to allow an increase the building height limit and health services facility to operate at 679-685 Old Northern Road, with concerns raised about the proposed health hub’s design and location.

Under the developer’s plans, the 3471 sqm site would feature a variety of private health service facilities including 19 specialist consulting rooms, a 16-room medical centre, a day surgery with four operating rooms, 20 recovery bays and 15 short stay beds.

It would also address an “identified shortfall” of medical facilities in the area.

Keylan Consulting director Dan Keary, speaking on behalf of the applicant, urged councillors to support the plans at the most recent council meeting.

Artist impression of the proposed "Dural health hub".

“(The proposal) seeks to provide new health services that meet an identified shortfall in the Dural locality,” he said.

“It compounds the lack of existing health services for ageing residents of Dural and the inaccessibility of the Hornsby Hospital or the potential future Rouse Hill Hospital for these residents.”

Artist impression of proposed development’s location.

Liminal Property Solutions director Andrew Bell, speaking on behalf of the applicant, told the Hornsby Advocate there was disappointment surrounding council’s lack of support.

“This decision would be more understandable if there was significant community pushback, but the fact is there has been almost unanimous support,” he said.

“Ageing residents in the Dural community should not be forced to travel as far as 80 minutes with multiple bus connections to access hospital grade health services at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital, when this proposal can put such a facility right here.”

But concerns with this proposal were shared across party lines at the council meeting.

Aerial view of the proposed health facility’s subject site.

Liberal councillor Warren Waddell questioned whether the proposed hospital was appropiate for a rural zoned area.

“My concern is with the design itself … I commend the applicant for bringing further medical facilities to the area, however, I am concerned about the bulk and scale the applicant seeks in increased height (because) I think it struggles to sit in harmony with the rural landscape,” he said.

Greens councillor Emma Heyde also raised concerns over the location of the proposed health facility, bu acknowledged the need for additional medical services in Hornsby’s rural areas.

“One of the most important things a council does is try to articulate a vision for an area — who gets to build what, who gets to build it where, who pays for it, how big is it and what do we want our suburbs to look like in the future,” she said.

“But that vision (belongs to) the community and … the community has worked so hard to articulate the sort of vision it wants for our bushland shire … and this particular development doesn’t meet what our community has expressed as its vision for the Hornsby Shire.”

In a statement, a Hornsby Council spokeswoman cited a lack of “strategic merit” as the reason why council voted unanimously against the planning proposal.

“(The) proposal lacks strategic merit due to inconsistencies with the Greater Sydney Regional Plan, North District Plan, Ministerial Directions, Hornsby Local Strategic Planning Statement, Hornsby Employment Land Study, and Hornsby Rural Lands Study,” she said.

“The proposal also lacks site-specific merit due to impacts on surrounding traffic infrastructure, amenity impacts and built form.”

But Mr Bell said this rejection does not signal the end of the road for the Dural health hub proposal.

“(We are) considering all available options to enable this facility be delivered for the best interest of the local community,” Mr Bell said.