Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our community in Little Bay had a big win on Friday when the planning panel rejected the outrageous proposal by the developer Meriton. The south-east Sydney planning panel unanimously decided to reject a plan for 1,900 new apartments in Little Bay. It was a clear case of overdevelopment at it's worst, but it brought out the best in our community who joined together to fight Meriton and its arrogant approach. That saw opposition from local residents, Randwick City Council and local Labor MPs of the state and federal level who stood together and said, 'Enough is enough.' So Little Bay has been saved for now after a hard fought campaign.

It was over a year ago that the council had already rejected Meriton's proposal in favour of the existing master plan for the site that was in place when the developer bought into the area, but Meriton tried to ride roughshod over the local planning process and go straight to the state planning authority. When the master plan was approved in 2009, it allowed for 450 dwellings at five storeys. Meriton wanted to build 1,900 dwellings up to 18 storeys high on the same site. It is pure greed and over the top. Thankfully, the south-east Sydney planning panel found that the proposal had 'unmitigated significant impacts on transport and amenity'. The scale of the development simply wasn't supported by existing transport infrastructure, and the panel found that Meriton wanted to impose 18-storey towers at a level of density that was inappropriate and out of character for the iconic Little Bay area. Indeed, the height and bulk distribution of buildings and the intrusion into the view corridors to the coast from the surrounding areas would have been significantly impacted, and it would have significantly impacted the amenity of the site, its environment and the surrounding area, as the panel said.

The panel has left the door open for future lower scale development at the site. It says:

There is an opportunity for alternative distributions of development density and built form on certain parts of the site.

Indeed, our community isn't opposed to any development at Little Bay, but there have to be restrictions. It has to work within the master plan. The support for the existing master plan is that it be in line with existing residential developments and character in this iconic part of Sydney. Meriton must now abide by the master plan if it wants to have any future in the Little Bay community. The developer can't simply keep gaming the planning system until it gets its way. Little Bay has been saved for now. Thank you to everyone in the community that got behind this wonderful community campaign.