Warriewood Macpherson St: Foley’s Nursery could be demolished to make way for 28 new homes

Another popular family-owned plant nursery on the northern beaches could be bulldozed to make way for dozens of new homes. See details of the plans here.

An artist's impression of some of the 28 residences, as seen from Brands Ln, at a proposed redevelopment of Foley's Nursery in Macpherson St, Warriewood. Picture: PBD Architects

Another popular garden centre looks set to be bulldozed to make way for a $18 million housing development.

An application to demolish the 25-year-old family owned Foley’s Nursery on Macpherson St, Warriewood — and transform it into 28 new homes — is with Northern Beaches Council

The application to redevelop the 10,000 sqm site comes as NSW Government planning officials are examining a $36m proposal to demolish the nearby Flower Power garden centre, just 200ms up Macpherson St, and replace it with 53 homes.

Both nurseries are already surrounded by medium-density housing subdivisions in a precinct called the Warriewood Valley Urban Land Release Area.

An artist's impression of some of the 28 residences at a proposed redevelopment of Foley's Nursery, as seen from Macpherson St, Warriewood. Picture: PBD Architects

The developers of the Foley’s site have sweetened their bid by offering to build a shared pedestrian and cycle path, along Brands Ln, to connect Macpherson St with Narrabeen Creek as well as upgrading the lane to a two-way street.

A portion of the land, which runs along the creek, would be rehabilitated and dedicated to the council for public use as part of a Voluntary Planning Agreement which is also being assessed.

The application suggest this would reduce the number of times that Macpherson St and Brands Ln would be affected by flooding “which is known to be of particular concern in the local community”.

The location, bordered in yellow, of a proposed redevelopment of Foley's Nursery in Macpherson St, Warriewood that includes 28 residences. Picture: Supplied

In planning documents lodged with the DA, the site’s owners point out the land is already zoned “Medium Density residential”.

They want the go-ahead to build 21 separate houses and four semi-detached homes as well as three “attached dwellings” — all with three bedrooms.

The entrance to Foley's Nursery in Brands Lane, Warriewood. Picture: Google Maps

Architect’s drawings included in the planning documents show rows of two-storey houses.

In a statement of environmental effects lodged with the DA, planning consultants state that the homes would “provide a high level of amenity for future occupants, without compromising the amenity of surrounding development or the character of the locality”.

But the DA has received nine submissions to the council from locals with concerns about the plans.

An artist's impression of a proposed 53-home subdivision on Macpherson St, Warriewood, on the site of the current Flower Power retail outlet and nursery. Picture: Supplied

Tim Pike was worried about an apparent lack of visitor parking within the subdivision.

“Also of concern is the removal of so many significant trees from the existing site,” Mr Pike wrote in his submission. “Despite the fact the submission proposes to plant new trees … the impact of the removal of so many advanced trees will have an enormous detrimental impact on the local environment.”

Glenn Mullane pointed out that increases traffic from the development would increase potential risk to pedestrians on Macpherson St unless pedestrians crossings were improved.

The Residents Committee of the nearby Warriewood Brook Retirement Village wrote that while it did not “object to the development in principle” it had concerns including issue with construction noise and parking for workers during the construction phase.

The Manly Daily has contacted the firm’s owners, Lyndon and Angela Foley, for comment.