Calls for Minister to discuss boarding house fears
Opposition to six boarding houses planned for Sydney has prompted Brad Hazzard to call on the Planning Minister to meet with ‘aggrieved’ residents.
Manly
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OPPOSITION to six boarding houses planned for the northern beaches has prompted a local state MP to call on the Planning Minister to meet with “aggrieved” residents.
Wakehurst MP Brad Hazzard has raised concerns with Minister Anthony Roberts about a planning law allowing “affordable housing” unit blocks to be built alongside single dwellings. Mr Hazzard said the meeting with the minister would include other key stakeholders and Northern Beaches Council.
As part of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Affordable Rental Housing), the State Government can effectively override the council’s planning controls for boarding houses.
Developers have been arguing the boarding houses will provide much-needed key worker housing for people such as nurses and emergency services personnel but residents fear the developments, including one with 103 rooms, will cause traffic chaos.
They also have concerns the boarding houses will affect the character of neighbourhoods.
The meeting call comes in the same week the council voted to call on Mr Roberts to place a moratorium on boarding house developments until the SEPP is reviewed.
Mr Hazzard said the council and community were right to have concerns over the legislation.
“I have stressed some of the local community are feeling aggrieved about the current SEPP that determines the arrangements for affordable housing,” he said.
“There is no question that we need to have available affordable accommodation for many of the critical workers in our local community.
“But the challenge is to get that model right.
“This model has been in place for more than a decade, it just needs to be revisited.”
Last Saturday, at 4pm, residents opposed to a proposed 36-room boarding house in Binalong Ave, Allambie Heights, planned to park 50 cars near the site to show authorities the potential traffic problems that may occur if the development is given the go-ahead.
Last month close to 300 people attended a public meeting to protest plans for a two-storey, 14-bed establishment close to the shopping centre at Allambie Heights.
It follows Warringah MP Tony Abbott’s call for a halt on rezonings and major redevelopment until better infrastructure is put in place.