Camden Council, ALAND developers at odds over Leppington Town Centre proposal
Competing visions for the future of a southwest Sydney town centre have reached boiling point after a local council called on a property developer to withdraw their proposal or cough up $130,000 for council staff to review their plans.
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Competing visions for the future of a southwest Sydney town centre have reached boiling point after a local council called on a property developer to withdraw their proposal or cough up $130,000 for council staff to review their plans.
Developer ALAND lodged a proposal with Camden Council for 156-166 Rickard Rd within the future Leppington Town centre to rezone the site to high density residential and increase the building heights from 24m up to 124m on the northern side and 25m to 29m in the southern portion of the four hectare site.
The revised plans, which include mixed residential and commercial towers next to the new Leppington public school, would also see the floor space ratio increased by more than 400 per cent and include 6974sq m of public open space.
ALAND said its “residential core master plan” would deliver more than 1300 apartments for a “thriving residential community supported by local retail and recreational amenities”.
In a letter to ALAND, manager of strategic planning at Camden Council Josh Pownell said the plans lacked “strategic merit” and failed to “consider the planning for the Leppington Town Centre precinct as a whole”.
“Leppington Town Centre must be planned as a single place and not as a series of fragmented lots,” Mr Pownell said.
Mr Pownell said ALAND’s plans sought to increase gross floor space by more than 400 per cent, the height of buildings by more than 200 per cent and reduce open space by more than half.
“Significant increases in residential density must be supported by increases in amenity, notably public open space, to assist in the development of community,” he said.
In correspondence with ALAND, Camden council said they were “not in a position to advance the planning proposal” and an approximate free of $130,000 would be charged every six months to ALAND for council planners to assess the proposal if they wished to continue.
Camden council advised ALAND during a January meeting there would be “significant additional fees for specialist consultants, an independent planning consultant, and an independent probity adviser to assist with the assessment”.
Council also said their priority and focus would be managing their own Leppington Town Centre Planning Proposal and the council “does not have enough internal resources to review the ALAND Leppington Planning Proposals”.
The council said the developer’s proposal may “cause confusion to the community” and council would have a “potential conflict of interest in assessing ALAND’s planning proposals”, even if independent consultants were hired.
ALAND was further recommended to withdraw their proposal and instead lodge a submission to council’s Leppington Town Centre Planning proposal due to “significant complexities” of having both proposals under assessment together.
A Camden council spokeswoman said it was “entirely reasonable and permitted” for council to charge applicants fees to cover the costs for assessing their individual applications and planning proposals.
“Conversely, it would not be reasonable for the community to pay the costs associated with this application in this circumstance,” the spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman said ALAND also lodged a separate rezoning review with the state government in February for the same height and density increases and understood fees would also be applicable for these applications.
The spokeswoman said the council received a significant number of submissions and will consider the “views of current landowners as well the needs of the future community”.
“Balancing the different and sometimes competing interests of landowners will be a focus for Council in completing this work. All landowners need to be treated fairly in this process,” she said.
Planning documents state ALAND also raised concerns regarding council’s plans, including an ineffective road network, an excessive level of open space alongside a lack of information on a clear timeline for the planning of the town centre to be delivered.
“ALAND’s Planning Proposal would overcome many of the issues that council’s Leppington Town Centre Planning Proposal would encounter, thereby more rapidly developing the town centre and activating the surrounding land,” planners stated.
An ALAND spokesman declined to comment.
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