Angst Grows Over Oxford Street High-Rise Plans

By Marcus Braid on July 9, 2015 in News

The community movement to halt development at the western end of Oxford Street in Bondi Junction has taken aim at Waverley Council for failing to ensure the planning proposal for two 38-metre high rises is under original height limits.

Marcella McAdam, the convener of the Bondi Junction Precinct Committee, said she’s concerned about the domino effect of giving the green light to Stargate Property Group’s planning proposal on Oxford Street.

“They are trying to say this is being done to create a sense of arrival,” she said. “How a couple of high-rise towers creates a sense of arrival I don’t know. Waverley is about the beach, the water and the park. Centennial Park is enough of an arrival. We just think it’s an absolute furphy.

“Our concern is that whatever is on the developer’s wish list they will get. Even though Council is currently saying that the rest of Oxford Street is to stay within the LEP, once a precedent is set it can be broken.

“If a precedent is set to go higher opposite the bus depot, other developers will push for that further down. We’re concerned that West Oxford Street will be nothing but high-rise towers looming over Woollahra, taking away from the Mill Hill residential amenities.”

However, Waverley Mayor Sally Betts retorted that a precedent had already been set in breaking the LEP.

“I know West Oxford Street [residents] are concerned about breaking the LEP, but what no one seems to be recognising is that it was broken some years ago,” Cr Betts said.

“You may recall Councillor [John] Wakefield voted to change the height and change the LEP of a site in the middle of Oxford Street.

“An LEP can be changed at any stage by the State Government.”

Cr Betts said the LEP was a matter for the state government, and that Stargate’s proposal to raise the LEP from 15 metres to 38 metres for the two towers was not before them when Council made the original West Oxford Street charrettes.

“When we did the [West Oxford Street Precinct] charrettes, we didn’t have any planning proposal,” she said. “That happened months afterwards.

“If it’s approved, and the only people who can approve it is the state government, it would change the LEP, yes.”

But Ms McAdam said Council had the opportunity to keep the Stargate proposal within the LEP months ago.

“They could have said that all of West Oxford Street is to stay within current planning controls,” she said.

“Council has actually excised that particular site opposite the bus depot from the West Oxford Street design charrettes.”

Around 250 people turned up to a protest organised by the Save West Oxford Street group on May 16.

“It was highly successful,” Ms McAdam said. “We had people turn up from Bondi Beach, Coogee, Charing Cross and Randwick: other areas of the LGA who also have concerns about the impact that any high-rise or increased density in that particular part of the Junction on Oxford Street will have on other parts of Waverley.”