Boarding house for Cromer gets green light despite 800 protesters

A boarding house which attracted almost 800 submissions against it — including one from affordable housing minister Brad Hazzard, has been approved.

A boarding house which attracted almost 800 submissions against it — including one from affordable housing minister Brad Hazzard, has been approved.

Locals packed a Warringah Development Assessment Panel meeting to protest against the plan for the eight room development on a residential block in Cromer, saying it was the wrong place it.

But the panel of four independent experts voted three to one to go ahead, as had been recommended by a report.

The minutes of the meeting said that only the community representative, Lloyd Graham, voted against it, saying it was“totally inappropriate.”

Mr Graham said the state government needs to look at planning rules which allows the developments in residential areas.

Locals packed a Warringah Development Assessment Panel meeting to protest against the plan.

However residents worries, including a lack of public transport, did not allow it to be refused.

At the meeting, residents of Grover Avenue, where it will be built, raised fears including the fact it could be used to house former prisoners, that it wouldn’t need to have a manager, and also called it a “gross overdevelopment” which took advantage of a planning “loophole”.

One local, Lisa Walsh even got emotional the two hour asking the panel: “You would not like a boarding house to be placed next to your house, so please do not allow one to be built next to ours.”

Some submissions had even said they feared paedophiles and addicts could move in.

The panel had visited the site and noted many of the block already have two homes on them- which the boarding house will have.

The minutes confirming the decision, said: “The panel is charged with carrying out its duties with objectivity and independence even when there are strong emotive issues before it.”

The conditions of the approval include more plants and a higher fence.

Residents said they feared renters who took the studio-style rooms, which could be rented for about $390 a week, could be noisy and might have social problems. They also said it was the wrong location, far from facilities.

Many quoted a report on boarding houses, which as reported in the Manly Daily has been dismissed as outdated by the developers, that said a high number of residents had social issues.

Social Housing Minister Brad Hazzard also said it was the wrong area.

While about a dozen residents spoke up against the plan the developer’s town planner Matthew Benson defended it.

He was heckled and jeered when he claimed it would be a legal boarding house as opposed to the many illegal flat and room shares found across Sydney and advertised online.

He called allegations made by some residents that children at nearby Cromer Public school could be put at risk as “absurd”. “The people who will live here will be part of the community,” he said.