Proposed changes for this key development site are being exhibited for comment on the Sydney Your Say website until 4 September (sydneyyoursay.com.au). The site contains all the necessary documents, plus the opportunity for you to express your views.

The section of St Johns Rd west of Ross St traffic lights is not well known. Despite the maps, there is no connection to Bridge Rd because of a half-closure at Junction St. However, at the bottom of St Johns Rd you can see the site in question. It is now, and has been for half a century, a large asphalted carpark (about 5,000 sq m), with a couple of warehouses in the middle.

Junction Street (source: Google Streetview)

Until Glebe was transferred to the City in 2003 it was zoned Industrial, and was known to Glebe Society members as the Campbell’s site, after the grocery manufacturers who owned it from 1979. The City rezoned it Mixed Use in the new TownPlan of 2012. Since then the current owners, Fitzpatrick’s, have proposed a series of residential developments, all of them far beyond the City’s residential controls. In reply the City drew up the current exhibited changes, which allow some increase in height and density in return for an open space dedication twice the size of what could be required under developer contributions.

The City did this because the western edge of the site runs along the Orphan School Creek, the boundary between Glebe and Camperdown, where there is already a small park adjacent to the access road, Larkin St. Moreover, Camperdown was formerly under the control of South Sydney Council, which had rezoned the western side of the Creek Residential, and permitted a lot of development from five to seven storeys.

Basically, the City’s changes will allow about 85 units to be built, provided there is a 50% increase in open space. Fitzpatrick’s did not like this, and earlier this year appealed to the Planning Assessment Commission. The PAC rejected the appeal, and it is unlikely the owner will be able to get a better deal.

This is not a DA, but a change of rules. We will all have another chance to comment when a DA is forthcoming, but this is a good opportunity to indicate what should be in that DA.