Rozelle Towers plans steam ahead

Rozelle Towers plans steam ahead

While the Planning Assessment Commission has still yet to pass a ruling on the controversial Rozelle Towers makeover, developers are already seeking expressions of interest for units in the large-scale development.

Rozelle Towers has issued a message through its automated email stating “a key objective of the development is to bring the Leagues Club back home to a new, modern purpose-built facility”. It informs readers the development is going through an approval process but they “hope to have a decision by February 2013”.

Rozelle Towers developer Ian Wright said seeking expressions of interest was part and parcel of the planning process.

“It’s not premature at all. This is what happens with every development; have a look at the Carrier Site across the road. They are already trying to sell and they haven’t got approval,” he said.

“With every development the developers seek expressions of interest early prior to approval … all the time. This is the normal process that developers go through.”

Mr Wright said the email rightly notifies the potential buyer of the nature of the approval process.

“The website is very clear about the phase the development is at. They get an auto-reply which tells them about the process and where we are with the process,” he said.

“It is not pre-empting anything at all.”

Mark Wallis, spokesperson for Rozelle Residents Action Group (RRAG), believes the automated response is contentious.
“I think it’s quite arrogant of them really to be doing so at this stage,” he said.

“I know that it may be part of the course for developers to do that. But given the amount of local opposition to this development and the fact that there are no assurances that it is going to be approved, I think it shows a real lack of sensitivity to the community concerns on their part.”

Mark Wallis highlighted the exponential growth of residential resistance to the towers.

“This time round we actually got more letters of support than we did in the last round, which is really unusual for a development of this nature,” he said.

“We got close to 8,000 rejections this time round. We got 4,500 last time, which really does go to show the amount of opposition – real opposition – that there is in the area.”

Mr Wallis said the developers’ ties with the Wests Tigers was the original reason Rozelle Towers had garnered support.

“One of the reasons the developer didn’t get as many letters of support this time around was because it wasn’t football season so they couldn’t set up their tables outside the sport matches and say ‘support the Tigers, sign here’.

“There were more letters of rejection than support.”

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