Rezoning for South Sydney Development Rejected

Planning authorities have knocked back an application to rezone a site within Ramsgate town centre which would have allowed for three residential towers above a supermarket in the southern Sydney suburb.

In a unanimous decision, the Sydney South Planning Panel said developers had failed to provide adequate justification to show they could manage the impacts of increased traffic which would come from the project.

Point Gate Developments—a joint venture between Melbourne-based developer Time and Place, and Fabcot Pty Ltd, Woolworths’ in-house retail development division—sought the rezoning review to the Georges River local environmental plan (LEP), arguing the council had failed to indicate its support for their proposal 90 days after the request was submitted.

If approved the $60-million development would have included 176 apartments in three towers—two of eight storeys and another of six storeys—with a Woolworths supermarket on a basement level. Plans included 20 speciality shops and eating outlets in and around a community plaza, as well as parking for 300 cars.

But in a letter to Georges River Council manager for strategic planning Catherine McMahon the planning panel said the proposal had demonstrated strategic merit but not site-specific merit.

“There was inadequate justification provided to demonstrate that the traffic impacts of the proposal could be managed to support the increased density and uses on this site, in particular the scale of the intensification of use associated with the extent of the full-line supermarket,” the chair of the planning panel Helen Lochhead said in the letter.

“The height and bulk are inconsistent with the proposed future character for the area under the current local environmental plan (LEP) and development control plan (DCP) controls.”

▲ The refusal has effectively put paid to the proposal in its current form.

The planning panel sided with George River, saying excessive height and bulk, inadequate interface to residential properties nearby, limited visibility of the public square, a lack of deep-soil landscaping, traffic generation and vehicle access, and impacts on adjoining heritage properties were outstanding issues.

The planning panel said the decision not to submit the proposal for a gateway determination was final and there would be no opportunity for it to be reconsidered or challenged on its merits.

“Although the proponent’s request for rezoning review has been unsuccessful, the pre-ponement may still lodge a new proposal for the site in the future,” Lochhead said. 

▲ The planning panel questioned how developers would manage the impacts of increased traffic.

In a submission opposing the planned development, the Kogarah Bay Progress Association said the proposal would have “enormous negative impacts on the commercial viability of all of the remaining shops in the Ramsgate village”.

The association warned the plan “set a dangerous precedent for high density creep and over-intensification in all of our village classification centres and other commercial areas within our entire local government area.”

The Sydney South Planning Panel is one of five Sydney and four regional plannings panels across NSW. Each panel, set up in 2009 to strengthen decision making on regionally significant development applications, is an independent body and not subject to the direction of the minister of planning and public spaces.