‘Overdevelopment on steroids’: Council reject high-rise plan for Little Bay
A controversial plan to build 1900 high-rise apartments in a beachside suburb of Sydney’s southeast has been rejected by Randwick Council, who voted against endorsing the proposal. See what will happen next with the huge proposal.
Southern Courier
Don't miss out on the headlines from Southern Courier. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A controversial plan to build 1900 high-rise apartments in the beachside suburb of Little Bay has been rejected by Randwick Council, who voted on Tuesday night not to endorse the proposal.
The council voted unanimously during a meeting in Little Bay not to support the project to proceed to a gateway determination with the Department of Planning.
In effect, it means development giant Meriton does not have support of the council, and will now have to seek approval directly through the Department of Planning and Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel under a pre-gateway review.
Harry Triguboff’s Meriton lodged a planning proposal last year with the council to build 1900 units in buildings up to 22 storeys (or 73m) on its 12ha site in Little Bay.
The developer has since lodged an amended proposal scaling back the maximum height of buildings to 17 storeys but still requesting 1900 units.
A Meriton spokesman Matthew Lennartz spoke at the council meeting and said it was a “justifiable and rational” proposal in one of the best strategic areas in Sydney for growth.
He said all concerns raised by the council about the Little Bay project could be addressed in future plans.
“I know first hand there are people in this community that support this project.”
He pointed to an independent survey completed for another controversial proposal which had been approved in the council area, the K2K plan, which returned wide support for high-rise rezoning despite plenty of community opposition.
However, councillors slammed the proposal as “overdevelopment” and “motivated by greed”.
“This proposal is overdevelopment on steroids,” councillor Dylan Parker said.
“Seventeenstoreys in a sensitive coastal environment is just totally inappropriate. Meriton wants to turn Little Bay into a new CBD by the sea.”
He highlighted concerns around bulk and size of the development, a lack of major transport links in the area, and no plans being in place for the short- to mid-term for major transport improvements in the area.
Councillor Harry Stavrinos agreed.
“The roading and public transport system would not be able to cope,” he said.
“It is all motivated by greed. I cannot see what benefit this proposal has for our community.”
The Meriton site currently has an approved masterplan which allows for 450 dwellings to be built in buildings up to five storeys (18m) – a far cry from what the developer is now requesting.
Save Little Bay, which has more than 2000 followers on Facebook, spokesman Antony Gould also spoke at the council meeting and said many residents living in Little Bay were strongly opposed to the plans.
“The ludicrous number of dwellings they are asking for has caused a groundswell of resentment (toward Meriton).”
The development site is also known as Little Bay Cove and located at 1406-1408 Anzac Parade.
Meriton bought the 12ha section of land in 2017 for $245 million which included an approved masterplan.