Huskisson: Four-storey, 35 apartment pinned for coastal town

A developer has plans to bring ‘affordable’ units to the south coast town of Huskisson. Here’s the latest.

Artist impression of the apartment building.

A major multistorey apartment complex proposed for a regional south coast town is aiming to bring more affordable housing to the region; however not everyone is thrilled.

Proposed and submitted to Shoalhaven Council by Jervis Bay Town Planning, the four-storey, 35 unit, 90 carparking space complex is set for 56, 58 and 60, Hawk St, Huskisson.

A spokesman for the developer said the apartment would bring more affordable housing to the coastal town.

“[It will] promote wider and more affordable housing choices in the Shoalhaven,” he said.

Development documents did not reveal how much the apartments were expected to cost.

The building will be slightly above the 11m height limit.

However, not everyone is excited about the large apartment, which would see multiple trees removed from the block and existing homes – owned by the developers – demolished.

Huskisson Community Voice secretary, Penny Davidson, said the community organisation was against the proposal.

Plans for the building currently sit with the Shoalhaven Council.

She said the group were against plans going above the 11m building height limit, despite the developers urging it would go above only slightly.

“There are no documented urban design or planning reasons for the strict imposition of an 11m height limit for the subject land,” Mrs Davidson said.

“We do not support the request to contravene the development standards with regard to height.”

Mrs Davidson also said the building design did not suit Huskisson aesthetics.

“It is not reasonable to expect that Huskisson housing stock will all be replaced with multistorey developments and it is certainly not reasonable to assume that all future owners will want to build three or four storeys,” she said.

“Renovations and developments in Huskisson are not all large scale and multistorey.”

Resident Sue Willis said developers should look at constructing tourism accommodation in the area, rather than more residential buildings.

“We have enough apartment building in Huskisson already with others under construction,” she said.

“These apartments are not lived in – they are only used possibly 90 per cent of the year for the peak holiday season and long weekends.”

Mrs Willis said if more tourist accommodation was built, more housing would be available for people looking to live in the area.

“Travellers need motels not apartments,” she said.

“They may need accommodation for a couple of nights with parking and motels provide this at a reasonable cost.”

Despite this, the Jervis Bay Town Planning spokesman said the proposed building would address a number of needs in the area, including the need for more housing.

“The apartment complex proposed consists of 35 apartments arranged over three separate floors,” he said.

“Of the apartments proposed, 24 will contain three bedrooms and 11 dwellings will contain two bedrooms.

“All apartments proposed are of contemporary design and it is expected that the overall development will contribute in a positive way to the locality.”

The development application will be discussed by Shoalhaven Council later this year.

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