Proposed boarding house, units for inner west rejected by planning panel
Inner west panel rejects planning proposals for 83-room boarding house and five-storey apartments in Annandale and Lilyfield.
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The Inner West Local Planning Panel unanimously has rejected two large residential planning proposals at Lilyfield and Annandale.
An amended design for an 83-room student boarding house at 1 to 5 Chester St at Annandale was rejected.
It would include 44 affordable housing apartments and 18 basement car spaces.
The panel said the proposal was inconsistent with future plans for the Parramatta Rd Corridor, a 20km stretch from Camperdown to Granville.
The panel supported a number of the changes to the proposal, including additional boarding houses on the site, a 17-metre height limit, and a thoroughfare for pedestrians and cyclists.
The new plan included at least 980 sqm dedicated to businesses and offices in technology, biomedical, arts, production and design industries, and other non-residential space dedicated to affordable spaces for tech start-ups and creative industries.
Britely Property planning consultant Michael File said the proposal has been through many iterations since April 2017 and is no longer weighted towards the Parramatta Rd strategy.
“While we are drawing from the Parramatta Rd strategy, we feel this proposal is more consistent with the future objectives (of council),” he said.
“The site currently has 300 sqm of employment on it. Our site would provide 980 sqm … a much more significant employment outcome.”
“What we’ve talked about are uses and needs in the area today. The need for student housing is clearly established (and) the need for employment uses that fit the emerging character of the area,” Mr File said.
The site is about metres from Sydney University.
Britely Property Director Alex Sicari said money spent on making amendments “goes against the intent of providing student affordable housing”.
“The more costs we load onto the project, the less affordable it will become at the back end,” he said.
“We’ve spent $470,000 on consultants, plus $120,000 on fees for a proposal that has a construction value of $12 million.”
A separate plan to redevelop a 2,145 sqm site at 36 Lonsdale St and 64 to 70 Brenan St at Lilyfield as residential apartments was rejected.
The current planning proposal was for a 19-metre, five-storey residential development.
The LPP determined the building was inappropriately large, and named a number of other design issues, as well as negative impacts on traffic and neighbouring buildings.
The LPP recommended an amended planning proposal, written up by council.
Under these controls, the proposal would be allowed to proceed if the development was capped at 2-storeys for parts of the site next to low-density residential housing and 5-storeys at 64 and 66 Brenan St, on the City West Link.
A pre-planning proposal from May 2016 for a six-storey mixed-use development was considered “an overdevelopment” by council.
The site currently houses a two-storey industrial building, a two-storey commercial building, and a number of single-detached houses.
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