Amending Stage 1 Concept Proposal (south site building envelope) Martin Place Station Precinct

Fire & Rescue NSW acknowledge receipt of your application.

For any future correspondence regarding this matter, we request that
you quote your job / reference number:

Project Reference: FRN17/1251
Job Number: BFS18/2366 (8000004543)

Should you have any further queries regarding this matter, please
contact the Fire Safety Branch on 02 9742 7434.

Thank you for your email and the opportunity for WaterNSW to provide
comment on the proposed SSD 9347 Martin Place Station Precinct,
Sydney.

The subject site, is not nearby WaterNSW land or infrastructure and
therefore WaterNSW has no particular requirements or comments
regarding the proposal.

Please note that SSD Notifications should also be forwarded to the
Department of Industry - Water using their
[email protected] email.

If you have any questions regarding this email, please feel free to
contact me.

I feel that Sydney should have a few wide boulevardes such as many other
cities have. Two examples are The Mall in London and the Champs Elysee
in Paris. Many people love the width of Martin Place and the fact that
you can stand at one end and have an unhindered view of the other end.
The current width of Martin Place should not be narrowed at any point
as doing so will make it a "pokey" and mean looking laneway rather
than a boulevarde. Sydney also does not have any large public squares
for special events like other cities around the world have which is a
great shame. Martin Place is probably the nearest thing we have to a
public square so narrowing it at any point will ruin it completely.
Macquarie Street should remain a wide boulevarde type thoroughfare as
well. Many people approved of the ANZAC Day March proceeding down
Macquarie Street and Martin Place rather than down pokey
over-developed George Street and many hope that this will continue in
future as there is a lot of room in Hyde Park for by-standers Also the
War Memorial and the Cenotaph are located in Macquarie Street and
Martin Place so it's very appropriate for the ANZAC Day March to take
that route. People standing at either end of Martin Place can have an
unhindered view of the veterans proceeding down into or out of Martin
Place. Please, please do not give in to developers who don't give a
damn about the resulting look of our city.

The applicant has not complied with item 8 of the SEARs (Public benefits,
contributions and/or voluntary planning agreement.

The EIS refers (page 29) to section 5.15 for this. However, 5.15
indicates that the authors of the EIS are completely ignorant of
section 7.4 (planning agreements) of the Environmental Planning and
Assessment Act and the Environmental Planning and Assessment
Regulation.

Furthermore, the EIS makes no mention of any "consultation with key
stakeholders" regarding public benefits and/or a voluntary planning
agreement as required by the SEARs.

Worse still, the applicant is proposing a substantial quantum of
additional floor space and variation from the prescribed setbacks the
without any offer under a voluntary planning agreement or other
arrangement.

I wouldn't object to the variation if there was a voluntary planning
agreement that offered public benefits commensurate with the scale of
the proposed variation. Other developers in the city centre have
provided or offered significant public benefits on top of s61
contributions in return for far smaller additional floorspace or
variations in planning controls.

We object to the potential loss of view from our unit to the south east
The amended height is to great on a significant and historic site like
Martin Place
The application almost doubles the maximum floor area

Fire + Rescue NSW will not at this time be providing comment on the
Amending Stage 1 Concept Proposal (south site building envelope)
Martin Place Station Precinct - Notice of Exhibition (SSD 9347) as
there is currently insufficient information available regarding the
fire safety and emergency response management aspects of the project.

We request that we be given the opportunity to review and provide
comment once approvals have been granted and the project has
progressed such that there is more relevant detailed information
available.

Please find attached CASA's response to your letter of 20 August 2018.

17 September 2018

Department of Planning and Environment
Attn: Director - Key Site Assessments
GPO Box 39
SYDNEY NSW 2001

Attention: Planner, Ms Annie Leung

Sydney Metro Martin Place Station Precinct - Amending Stage 1 Concept
Proposal (south site building envelope) Sydney Metro Martin Place
Station Precinct

Dear Director,

The National Trust of Australia (NSW) lodges its objection to the
amending Concept Development Application to modify the building
envelope above the southern entrance of the over station development
in the Martin Place Station Precinct approved by Stage 1 Concept
Approval (SSD 8351), which includes changes to reduce the tower
setback to Martin Place to 8 metres from 25 metres, increase maximum
tower height to Reduced Level (RL)163.8 from RL 155.39 and providing
approximately 28 storeys of commercial development.

In November, 1981, the "Martin Place Urban Conservation Area" was
listed on the National Trust Register as Sydney's grand civic place.
The Listing Report notes that

"Despite its mixture of building ages, styles, heights and textures,
it maintains a coherence, a harmony and an elegant character. A score
of important public and private buildings from the early nineteenth to
the mid twentieth centuries remain in the conservation area, together
giving a fine, harmonious streetscape emphasised by the topography.
The predominant character, despite the variety, is one of a formal
Victorian street, terminated at each end by elegant buildings. Despite
the busy cross streets, the continuity of the pedestrian space is
maintained by consistency in the kind of paving and street furniture
installed during the 1970s conversion to a mall. It is a street where
the harmony of the ochres of sandstone and granite, the gentle sweep
of the hill, and the wide but well-enclosed and largely continuous
building line combine to form a grand and imposing, but still very
human, urban space."

The key element in the reasons for listing is "the wide but
well-enclosed and largely continuous building line combine to form a
grand and imposing, but still very human, urban space."

In the Trust's view, the podium of the proposed building does meet the
"well-enclosed and largely continuous building line combining to form
a grand and imposing urban space" for Martin Place.
However, the reduction of the tower setback to Martin Place from 25
metres to 8 metres, is contrary to the provisions of the Sydney City
Council Development Control Plan for this site and will impact
adversely on the maintenance of the "very human, urban space" so vital
to the public's use and enjoyment of Sydney's grand civic space.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Quint
Director, Conservation

see attached letter

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