14 October 2011

Silvia Corriera
Planning Department
City of Sydney

Dear Silvia

SUPPLEMENTARY SUBMISSION: HAROLD PARK MASTERPLAN AND DAs FOR PRECINCTS 1 & 2, D/2011/1311-2 & 1298-9

The Glebe Society submitted its response to these DAs on 26 September 2011 but noting that the date for responses to the Harold Park DAs has been extended to 14th October we wish to take advantage of this additional opportunity. Consequently we are providing some supplementary observations in light of more recent developments.

You would be aware that subsequent to our original submission, the local MP for Balmain, Jamie Parker, held a public meeting in Glebe to discuss the development proposals. The Glebe Society was represented by numbers of its members. The meeting had in the order of 80-100 attendees.

A high level of concern was expressed in relation to some of the core concerns we previously raised with Council.  The intention of this submission is to elaborate on these matters in light of the further community discussions.

Building Heights

The Parker meeting reflected considerable ongoing concern about the height of the buildings (8 storeys rather than a maximum of 6) and the consequent density of dwellings.  We ask Council to re-visit this issue which has, arguably, been the single biggest concern of residents in regard to the development

Tramsheds The Glebe Society was pleased with the earlier amendments to the overarching planning controls to significantly reduce the space available for non-residential development and understands from Mirvac that large scale intensive retail/commercial activity is not planned for the site. Nonetheless, concerns have been expressed about the alarming potential for major retail/commercial development in the Tramsheds area with serious impacts on the main shopping streets in Glebe and Annandale.

In our earlier submission we recommended that MIRVAC take up the State Government offer of $10m for rehabilitation of accident victims and move swiftly on the DA for the restoration and reuse of the Tramsheds.  We reaffirm the importance of this action given the current community concerns about the magnitude of commercial activity and the traffic impact (see below)

The Glebe Society will be generating community discussion about the possible uses for the 500sq metres of space allocated to community use and will liaise with Council on this.

Traffic

Driving a great deal of the concern about the Harold Park development are the potential traffic impacts, including traffic related to the Tramsheds area. There is a widespread perception that no-one has done serious and adequate analysis of the broad traffic aspects of the development.  We also note that the proposed access to part of the site through Maxwell Street has exacerbated concerns about overall traffic planning and the potential for a later decision to be made to link this access route to a potentially enlarged Tramsheds redevelopment.

The Glebe Society is of the view that community confidence in traffic projections will remain low if residents cannot be assured that sufficient analysis of the broad traffic implications has been undertaken. The community needs to know that the planners and consent authorities have sound and reliable data on the impact on traffic in both the wider locality and the streets adjacent to the site (not just the immediate streets- though that too brings major concerns). The Society agrees that it is only when this data is available that it will be possible to assess (1) what remediating action might be needed and (2) whether the impact can be adequately managed.

While we realise that this is a late stage for making a request, The Society asks for a comprehensive analysis to be carried out to  address the two key aspects above. If the necessary data set already exists it should be made available widely in a format that is accessible by lay persons.If the data is not availablethen we respectfully request the Council and the CSPC to consider completing a significantly enhanced traffic study before further decisions are made and, at the least, before any further DAs in relation to the site are approved.

Yours sincerely,

Mairéad Browne
President,
The Glebe Society