Our vision for the town centre
We believe a better outcome for Gladesville would be achieved by looking at the town centre more holistically as per the previous Masterplan. A bigger picture plan would enable better traffic management, pedestrian flow, links between public spaces, and, most importantly, would enable development of the Key Site at a scale more in keeping with its surroundings.
However, when looking at just the Key Site as we are now being asked to do, we believe Council's Planning Proposal should be driven by what is good for the community, not by a target level of profit for the developer.
We think Council should update the Economic and Feasibility Study to reflect more recent apartment sales in Gladesville. This would likely show that a lower density and height option is feasible, even if at a slightly lower profit for the developer. Council should re-investigate an FSR of 3:1 (up from 2.7:1 in the current LEP) while keeping the current maximum height of 34m, which is roughly around 12 stories. A development with a mix of buildings up to 12 stories would be far less imposing, reduce issues of overshadowing, traffic, etc.
We also think in any new planning proposal it’s now important to consider the potential of the NSW government’s affordable housing bonus to increase the height of apartment blocks by up to 30% above what ends up in the Local Environment Plan (LEP). With the FSR of 3:1 and height max of 34m suggested above, if the developer applied for the maximum 30% bonus , the maximum height of the buildings would then be 44.2m, or roughly 15-16 stories. Not ideal, but far better than 91m, which is Council’s proposed 70m plus 30% (28-30 stories)!
As a bare minimum, Council should show us modelling of what a lower height option with their proposed 4:1 FSR would look like. They said at the Community Informations Session that this is possible. Currently they are presenting the 19-storey towers as an all or nothing option. The height of the towers is one of the major concerns for the community. If lower height options are possible, the community needs to see what this would look like.
We also call on Council to include in their Proposal for the Key Site the Gyde Study's recommendations for changes to the current LEP to ensure the desired outcomes for things like minimum areas of public space are enforceable (See Desired outcomes are not guaranteed).
We are confident that a lower density and height proposal is possible. Now is the time for the community to speak up and tell Council what we want and to get this Proposal fixed before it goes back to Gateway determination.