Ku-Ring-Gai Floodgates Open as Planning Certainty Emerges

It’s full steam ahead at Ku-ring-gai as the Upper North Shore area opens up after years as a difficult planning environment

Multiple developments at Lindfield and Gordon are now in progress, making use of a patchwork of policy provisions to increase yield. 

They are part of a veritable flood of development compared to previous years and come after the Ku-ring-gai Council challenged state-led Transport-Oriented Development areas to implement its own, a downsized version of a TOD precinct. 

Ku-ring-gai Council put up its alternative scheme this year, allowing taller mixed-use development in some centres and lowering it in others, as well as increasing affordable housing contributions. 

In June it resolved to submit the amended mapping to the NSW Government and go ahead with the scheme, giving developers some level of certainty about the future of development in the LGA. 

This and other policy amendments have paved the way for the fresh wave of projects—including a 162-unit development at Gordon.

The state significant proposal for 21, 23 and 25 McIntosh Street and 55 Werona Avenue was proposed by developers CPDM acting for land owners Werona Ave Residence Holdings Pty Ltd. 

The development now on exhibition seeks consent for three new residential flat buildings, all of eight storeys, as infill affordable housing. 

It has an estimated development cost of $158 million. 

▲ Rendering of the proposed development at 21, 23 and 25 McIntosh Street.

Of the apartments, 33 would be affordable and aimed at key workers, 29 retained as affordable for 15 years and the remainder would be affordable in perpetuity.

The project would include two basement levels for 191 carparking spaces. 

The planning reports by Gyde Consulting said the project would support the “redevelopment of an underutilised site”.

The development was aimed at the downsizer market, the report said, to encourage retirees to sell family homes and relocate to apartments closer to public transport. 

The apartment mix would diversify housing in the area and would also be suitable for the growing numbers of couples without children and single-person households, according to the report.

▲ The McIntosh Street is aimed at downsizers as well as smaller families.

The application said that although a significant proportion of Ku-ring-gai’s population owned their homes, increasingly, smaller families and the underutilisation of larger homes “suggests a potential trend of older residents living in under-occupied homes”.

Diversifying housing and thus demographics would contribute to the vibrancy of the area, it said, especially given that the 7776sq m site now contains single homes. 

The site is east of Pacific Highway and 400m from the Gordon Railway Station in a prescribed infill and low and medium-rise housing area, allowing increased density where TOD provisions do not apply. 

This was relevant to the sites surrounding the development, CPDM’s application said, as they were no longer identified as TOD sites after the council changes.

▲ Rendering of the proposed development at 19-25 Balfour Street.

Also on exhibition is a development of 98 units at Lindfield.

Plans for the 19-25 Balfour Street site detail 71 market and 27 affordable housing units—a 17 per cent affordable home contribution. 

The project by developer Balfour Group Pty Ltd, associated with Chinese national Kaihang Fang, would deliver 5 one, 19 two, 59 three and 15 four-bedroom apartments. 

The proposal for the 4771sq m site, designed by Giles Tribe Architects, has an estimated development cost of $86 million. 

It would also have 193 spaces in a basement level carparks. The site is 320m from the Pacific Highway and Lindfield Station within the Lindfield TOD area. 

The development application by Keylan said the proposal supported a “sustainable urban form” in an existing built-up area, which is gradually increasing in density. 

▲ Rendering of previous approved plans for 26-30 McIntyre Street, comprising 32 apartments.

And Sydney developer Rudder Group has amended an application for a project at Gordon. 

The developer at 26-30 McIntyre Street with a $39.8-million construction cost, comprises two eight-storey residential buildings of 53 apartments in total. 

A shared basement would include 92 residential parking spaces and 9 visitor parking spaces with access from McIntyre Street.

The amended proposal (pictured top), which increased apartment numbers at the approved development from 32, aims to tap into the Low and Mid Rise (LMR) Housing bonus provisions relating to height and floor space under the Housing SEPP. 

The site is 400m from the Gordon Town Centre and 12.5km north-west of the Sydney CBD. It is zoned R4 High Density Residential.

The proposal is relying on infill affordable housing bonus provisions for extra height and floor space ratio, and includes 45 market and eight affordable apartments.