Pendle Hill, Dunmore Street: Almost 900 units for retirement village

A  retirement village redevelopment could transform a western Sydney site into 900 homes over multi-storey blocks and upgrade the ailing main street.

An artist’s impression of how a redeveloped Pendle Hill Retirement Village will look. The foreground building is heritage-listed Ashwood House.

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The Pendle Hill Retirement Village redevelopment with almost 900 homes is drawing closer to final approval after Cumberland Council endorsed the plans at a recent meeting.

Before the State Government's Planning Department has the final say on the project, the public will have a chance to offer feedback on Fresh Hope's plans to transform the site, which is currently dotted with stately heritage buildings.

Dunmore House and Ashwood House, which hold local heritage listing, would remain on Dunmore St site, where Fresh Hope Care has proposed a complex for 930  residents over 7.3 hectares.

Fresh Hope Care manages the existing retirement village, which currently has capacity for 190 residents over single-storey dwellings on Dunmore St and Pendle Way.

Ashwood House is part of Pendle Hill Retirement Village.

A total of 650 residential independent living units and key affordable key worker housing units, and 240-bed aged care dwellings, are planned.

A denser style of living for seniors and the wider community would radically change the site.

The project could also generate 320 aged care and retirement living jobs, the potential for Dunmore House to be a used for the community, a medical centre and 70 per cent of the total area would be open space for the public and private use.

A cafe or restaurant is also earmarked facing the street near  Ashwood House but council officers have rejected the proposal because it would mean serving a broader reach of the community insead of residents on the site.

The development is seen as a significant opportunity to increase seniors housing in the Cumberland area, where a 95 per cent increase in the 65 to 84 age group is predicted by 2036.

The application says there are “compelling strategic” justifications for the plans including that it “supports an increase in the supply of seniors and affordable key worker housing in an area that is strategically located with access to public transport services, social infrastructure and services in the Pendle Hill local centre’’.

As part of developers' contributions, Fresh Hope would allocate funds to upgrade Pendle Way shops, which are "falling apart'' and even bereft of a place to buy decent coffee.

In December, the suburb missed out on a $1 million State Government Your High St grant after Cumberland Council nominated Granville's South St as the recipient, despite it already being described as a thriving street and the "jewel in the council's crown".

The grant was lost on Mayor Steve Christou's vote.

The population explosion will demand better shops. The retirement village could see the population soar by another 930 extra permanent residents, and building heights could jump from 11m to 32m (eight eight storeys) if the Planning Department approves the proposal for the land to be rezoned to R4 (high density) and R2 (private recreation).

 

An artist’s impression of the revamped housing village, with Dunmore House in the background.

 

Subject to approval, the developers' contribution towards refurbishing Pendle Hill shops won't just benefit the retirement village community but the influx of residents expected to live next door at the adjacent Bonds site, where a a staggering 1200 units are earmarked.

The massive project has mean infrastructure concerns are rife — including traffic congestion and that the supermarket won’t open until the fourth stage after residents have settled there.

Pendle Hill is in the fastest growing ward of Cumberland Council. Suburbs including Wentworthville, Mays Hill, Toongabbie, Westmead and parts of Greystanes are forecast to 54 per cent in the next 20 years when 20,000 people are expected to move there.

READ MORE: Cumberland’s ‘mind boggling’ housing target

Cumberland Council endorsed the Fresh Hope redevelopment at a recent meeting ahead of the public feedback period, which will allow residents to have their say before June 9.

 

The elegant Dunmore House will be surrounded by architecture of a different kind if the planning proposal gets the green light.

 

 

Cr Christou last year conceded the size of the development concerned him “but this is one proposal that ticks the right boxes in terms of community benefit”.

Have your say: cumberland.nsw.gov.au