No need for overdevelopment: Labor, Liberal councillors united in opposition to apartment towers – The Sydney Morning Herald

The site is bounded by busy roads and opposite the Waverley Bus Depot, which in the past has been speculated as a target for property development.

Ms Glass said the apartment towers would destroy a local heritage area and overshadow Oxford Street, creating wind tunnels like the ones further east on the street.

Ms Glass also criticised the planning process under which changes were made to local planning rules to accommodate the development.

The state government in 2019 approved an increase in maximum height and floor space ratio controls for the site to support urban renewal, a Planning Department spokesman said.

More than 570,000 new homes have been approved in NSW in the past decade, with 194,000 more homes planned for delivery by 2026.

Planning alone cant solve housing affordability, but were driving the biggest reforms to the planning system in decades to unlock more housing supply, the spokesman said.

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Waverley Liberal councillor Angela Burrill said the apartment towers were an overdevelopment and would breach height limits, which were more than doubled to 36 metres over the opposition of residents and the council.

The site is in a high traffic area and can only increase congestion already experienced locally, she said.

Cr Burrill said a huge amount of apartments had been built in Waverley Council in the past five years, meeting housing targets so there was no need for the overdevelopment of this site.

Certainly residents voices, impacts on congestion and density as well as heritage should factor into decisions on increasing heights that allow these large apartment blocks, she said.

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Waverley Labor councillor Paula Masselos said overdevelopment, affordable housing and population growth were major concerns for voters who will elect a new council on December 4.

She said the proposal showed a total lack of concern about its negative impacts on the community and stress it places on already overtaxed infrastructure.

Feeder schools have already said they are full and cannot take any more students, while Oxford Street is already gridlocked, she said.

Cr Masselos said the apartment towers would also undo efforts by local mayors to protect Centennial Park from the impact of private developments.

This building is visible from the centre of the park, which goes against the charter of the park that promotes views of the sky to the horizon not high-rise buildings, she said.

But Mr Leis said the project did not directly impact on any neighbouring residents or encroach on the heritage area or Centennial Park.

Mr Leis said Bondi Junction was an established town centre with good public transport links, access to park and beaches as well as shops, schools and medical services.

The site was presented to us by a local agent who highlighted the merits of the location for residential housing and held the view that this end of Oxford Street was also in need of some revitalisation, he said.

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No need for overdevelopment: Labor, Liberal councillors united in opposition to apartment towers - The Sydney Morning Herald