By ALLISON HORE
Independent member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, has called on the NSW government to “act as custodian of the harbour” and reject Mirvac’s amended development proposal for the Harbourside Shopping Centre beside Darling Harbour.
The proposal would have the 30 year old shopping complex demolished to make way for a new mixed-use development, which will include a new shopping complex and a 153-metre tower containing 357 apartments.
Mirvac has owned the property since 2013, when they purchased it for $252 million. Their proposal for the tower and shopping complex was first put forward in 2016 and attracted criticism over it. After extensive reworking to address these concerns, the amended plan for the project was available for submissions in April.
“The proposed project remains a massive and unacceptable increase in bulk and scale on the waterfront compared to the existing low-rise, light-weight structure,” said Mr. Greenwich.
The member for Sydney also opposed the original proposal for a 166m tower. The new proposal cuts the tower down to 153m and relocates it to the center of the complex, however, Greenwich said that these changes “do not address serious concerns about the proposal.
“While the amended development application provides some improvements on the initial proposal, building a tower on the public waterfront remains inappropriate and has no planning merit,” Greenwich said in his submission.
“The proposal should be rejected.”
Greenwich said while the new design proposal does effectively address the concerns of some buildings, that the impact the changes will have on other buildings is “unacceptable”.
“I welcome the improvements to views for some homes in 50 Murray Street, but the podium will continue to devastate views in apartments up to the ninth storey, making them darker and significantly impacting on amenity,” he said.
“Impacts on views from other apartment buildings have not been identified even though the tower would move closer.”
Many changes proposed
The Harbourside Shopping Centre redevelopment is just one of many proposed changes for the Pyrmont peninsula and Darling Harbour precinct. Through 2020 the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, along with other state agencies and the City of Sydney, is working to develop a new “Pyrmont Peninsula Place Strategy” to “transform Pyrmont into the next jobs hub and economic driver of Sydney.”
NSW Hotelier and property developer, Dr Jerry Schwartz, has also called for the proposal to be rejected. Dr. Schwartz, who owns the adjacent Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour says that the residential apartments in the tower go against Darling Harbour’s “principal role as Sydney’s tourism hub”. He says previous planning bodies have rejected proposals for residential accommodation in the Harbourside development and that decision should stand.
“The rest of Mirvac’s proposal – the commercial and retail – is just a smokescreen for what is the ultimate end game: a massive residential development which goes completely against the ethos of the original Darling Harbour design concept,” he said in a statement.
“We call on the NSW Government to make it clear to Mirvac that this third version of their re-development plan is totally unacceptable.”
Developments in Darling Harbour are considered a State Significant Development (SSD), meaning the proposal is assessed by the Department of Planning and Environment rather than the local council. Submissions to the department regarding the amended proposal closed on the 29th of April.
