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118-124 Terry St: One Year Later
New Opportunity to Ask Key Questions
It’s a year since we at Community Action Rozelle (CARz for short) had much to report about the development of our sad and overgrown local rubbish-dump-rat-home. We mean of course 118-124 Terry Street, the former Carrier/Multiplex site that was bought in 2010 by Anka Constructions Pty. Ltd.
Anka eventually proposed an overdevelopment that was reined in by Council last April with support from the local community. Anka had to agree to drop the floor space ratio from 1.7:1 to 1.5:1, to reduce all street-front buildings from 4 storeys to 3 storeys and the central apartment block from 8 storeys to 6 storeys, to cut the proposed supermarket from 600 square metres to 300 square metres, and to markedly reduce the overshadowing of existing Crystal Street properties. Here's our map from last year:
Councillors insisted on signing a Voluntary Planning Agreement with the developers. This binding deal would, among other things, extract a heavy penalty for each square metre Anka managed to squeeze beyond the 1.5:1 limit, and would guarantee a large contribution to local public works and to affordable housing within the Leichhardt area.
It’s taken a year for a draft Agreement to be agreed. Now it must be ‘exhibited’ to the community and passed by Council who will then recommend that the precious land be rezoned from Industrial to the highly prized Residential.
The ‘voluntary’ contribution agreed by Anka is to be $m4.16. The penalty for each extra square metre beyond the floor space limit is set at $3000. And Anka agree to hand over the new street/cul-de-sac that runs into the development from Terry Street and will, hopefully, in some distant maybe-time, link up with Merton Street.
Council are at "the reasoning stage" which, an insider says, "sets the framework for a future DA in terms of height, setbacks, car parking, traffic, etc." Compare and contrast this with Rozelle Village Pty. Ltd. and their gasp-inducing floor space ratio of 7.1:1 — which makes the Anka board seem like angelic goody-goodies.
Let’s keep them honest –
Come to a Public Meeting to discuss Council’s deal with Anka
At 6 pm, Thursday 24 May at Balmain Town Hall
Relevant documents can be found on the Council's website.
The exhibition period closes on Wednesday, 13th June.
Written submissions to Peter Head, General Manager, Leichhardt Municipal Council, P.O. Box 45, Leichhardt, 2040
or emailed to terrystreetlep@lmc.nsw.gov.au
![](http://rozelle.e-newsletter.com.au/media/dynamic/id/45c3a6484fcca694ea96b322eae19bf2fb6aa295/interface.gif\") ![](http://rozelle.e-newsletter.com.au/media/dynamic/id/45c3a6484fcca694ea963e7a141bed93239fb3f8/interface.gif\") |
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Wellington Street — Super Highway!
One narrow street, one big headache
Our concern has always centred on the increase of local traffic. Just how many extra vehicles can we expect on the often clogged Terry/Wellington Street circuit?
We were worried about the additional traffic proposed by Multiplex. We are alarmed at the prospect of all the extra cars that will go with Anka’s formidable apartment blocks.
But we are absolutely terrified of what the designers of the new ‘Tigers’ development are proposing.
They plan 8 levels of basement parking — space for 834 vehicles. The 304 new dwellings are to be accessed from poor old Waterloo Street. But the supermarket, fitness centre, club facilities, pokies and many shops can only be accessed from Victoria Road. All deliveries, shoppers and visitors through the one entrance/exit!
If you are approaching from the city you can turn directly left off Victoria Road into the gaping maw. But you can’t turn right if you are approaching from Iron Cove Bridge. The only other way in is to travel along Wellington Street and wait for new traffic lights to give you some limited entrance time.
Vehicles from the Balmain Peninsula must enter via Terry and Wellington. Vehicles from Iron Cove Bridge must wait for the lights at Terry Street and do the Terry/Wellington loop. Yep, all roads lead to Wellington Street, the designated Super Highway.
Madness abounds. There’s the big new Nutrimetics residential development coming to Eliot Street. There’s the bigger Anka development coming to Terry Street. There’s the proposed monster ‘Tigers’ development coming to Victoria Road. They’re all planning for large numbers of new vehicles. And they all plan to use Wellington Street and its narrow entrance into Victoria Road!
Here's a plan from an actual 'Rozelle Village Fact Sheet' showing the only two ways vehicles will enter the enormous development:
The unreadable blue box top-left helpfully explains that all vehicles travelling up Victoria Road bound for the 'Tigers' must turn left at Terry Street and proceed to Wellington Street. The Fact Sheet declares that 'access to Rozelle Village has been designed to minimise the impact of traffic on the local community'. Yeah, right.
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A Model of Effrontery
'Tiger Towers' Turns Tummies
How was it for you the first time you saw the scale model of the new Tigers development?
Did you laugh? Gasp? Swear loudly?
I did all three in quick succession.
I wasn’t expecting such a major experience as I entered the Balmain Library to see the advertised display. The colourless model was so large it overlapped the table reserved for it. All the accompanying literature and plans were scattered on the floor.
There it was — in all its outrageous up-yours obscenity — beautifully done, it must be said, must have cost a motza, the triple towers soaring over our boringly teeny houses, shops and schools spread out in bullied supplication below. Here it is, with Darling Street along the bottom, looking down Victoria Road:
At the recent packed Balmain Town Hall meeting someone asked if perhaps the tallest tower, at 32 storeys, might constitute a hazard for landing aircraft — after all, the development is right under the flight path. The answer was that the completed tower would be less than a metre below the officially allowed maximum height on the flight path — 145 metres. The developer had gone as high as he could.
The sheer gall, the brazen effrontery turns my stomach.
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Support the Mighty RRAG
Everything you need to know about the
'Let's Pretend Its Tigers' development
Things have been pretty slow on the Carrier/Multiplex/Anka front. CARz has been ‘off the air’ for some time. Did you miss us?
But the craziness on Victoria Road has escalated alarmingly. ‘Rozelle Village Pty Ltd’ is intent on wiping out our wonderfully real and loved Rozelle village on Darling Street.
Fortunately our colleagues at RRAG – the Rozelle Residents Action Group — continue to run a brilliant, non-stop campaign.
Their amazing website — at www.saverozelle.com — is a model of its kind, packed with information and advice.
Submissions to the State Government’s Planning Assessment Commission must be made by Monday, 18th June. You can send your comments from the RRAG website. It’s absolutely vital that we all express our views.
Here's a terrific RRAG poster, also available from their website:
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