Residents slam St Luke’s Grammar School’s four-storey development plan
RESIDENTS are mobilising against a planned multi-storey development at St Luke’s Grammar School, on Sydney’s northern beaches, by starting a social media campaign against the proposal.
Manly
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RESIDENTS are mobilising against a planned multi-storey development at St Luke’s Grammar School — starting a social media campaign against the proposal.
The St Luke’s Resistance Facebook page, launched following a Manly Daily report last Saturday, has been accompanied by dozens of submissions against the four-storey upgrade to the Dee Why school’s primary campus.
Residents say the expansion will be detrimental to the area because of traffic congestion and a lack of parking.
They also fear an invasion of privacy due to the main building’s increased height — from one storey to four.
Nick Schutt, who lives in nearby Tango Ave, labelled the plans a “recipe for disaster”.
“The road infrastructure we have is just not suitable for that scale of development,” he said.
“Traffic is already diabolical from about 2.30pm until 3.30pm throughout the week and it’s hard for residents to access their driveways.
“Another key concern for me is safety.
“This a is a recipe for disaster and I just feel like it’s a matter of time before a child gets hit.”
Tricia Kelly, who has lived in Headland Rd for 30 years, said having to work around before- and after-school hours to avoid students and traffic was already an issue.
She said locals had been verbally abused by frustrated drivers.
“I had a neighbour threatened by a motorist because she asked them to move from parking across her driveway,” she said. “I must admit there are good days with traffic but the majority of the time it’s chaos and we shouldn’t have a big development like this.”
The school upgrade would include re-purposing the ground and first floors of the junior school to provide kitchen facilities for the introduction of food technology.
It will extend facilities for the STEM and digital technology curriculum and a four-storey building — including classrooms and a top-floor playground — will be built on the current cottage, kindergarten and Year 1 site.
Northern Beaches Council planning general manager David Kerr said the council had received 29 submissions about the development application (DA) for an increase of 100 students at St Luke’s.
“The application for the increase in student numbers will be reported back to the Sydney North Planning Panel for determination following council’s assessment,” he said.
The school was contacted for comment.