Harbourside Shopping Centre Redevelopment

I feel Harbourside should be Built into a world class shopping precent and be no higher than the existing level at present. The highest point at the moment is the Monorail station therefore the new complex should be no higher than this level & no rooftop entertaining area should be allowed as this will elevate noise up to residential levels.

The proposed 295 car spaces to be built are absolutely ridiculous and outrageous!
There is no need to build two levels of car park as Darling Drive is already very congested with just one lane of traffic each way and very many vehicles. There is no sensible traffic plan. The traffic study was commenced while Darling Drive was not in full operation owing to the building of the ICC and surrounding tall structures therefore it is not a true picture of the traffic that is constantly in Darling Drive and surrounding streets. The excavation process could severely undermine surrounding buildings and being so close to the edge of the foreshore may be detrimental to the environment.

In the building plans it says about breaking into the historic Pyrmont Bridge railing and the plans state this will be done in the part of the bridge which is not historic? If the bridge is deemed historic then all of it must be historic! So could the developers please explain this statement to everyone! Natalie Vinson the heritage specialist should be consulted & investigating this ridiculous idea before it is too late! There should be no walkway to the Harbourside site from this area! And entry should be the same as it is at present.

According to the plans there are going to be 32 Flag Poles removed and I ask the question why of the developers is this necessary? I like the flags on the bridge for the different events that will be taking place. The flags are colourful & very informative & a great tourism celebration place.

Harbourside has been neglected as a state significant site! Darling Harbour is a recreational entertainment and public precent not for another hi rise building which will look ugly when walking across our historic Pyrmont Bridge.

There has been little refurbishment of Harbourside since it was built by the NSW Government in 1984-1988 for the Bicentennial celebrations & finished for the 26th Jan 1988 some 29 years ago. The roof has never been painted & looks very old & dirty. And now all of a sudden we have to a have a huge residential building built to be sold to cashed up overseas investors for very big money for the Mirvac developers!

Harbourside was built as a festival marketplace to replicate the festival markets in Baltimore Maryland USA, but Harbourside has not kept up its side of the lease which still has 71 years to go & they have let the area become neglected & tired.

If this building is allowed to be erected there will be very little sunlight and overshadowed most of the time on Darling Harbour & Cockle Bay
It will be extremely noisy on the open area roof top level of the building. There are no other tall towers this close to the water in Darling Harbour.

We should plan to revitalise Harbourside into a recreational entertainment & public precent NOT high rise residential apartments. People in close proximity to the residential tower will be extremely affected with very little sunlight & not much privacy. When there is some private open space people have a feeling of happiness which is very healthy for their well being. In a small apartment a view can connect someone inside with the outside world. Have more open spaces NOT more high rise. It is far too congested in Darling Harbour already without another tall building being built of any sort.

I live in the building known as One Darling Harbour right behind the proposed tower. My apartment is on level 9 and I will be extremely affected by having no privacy, very little sunshine, overshadowing, and noise pollution not to mention my severe loss of view.
With this tower that is to be built so close to me I will feel boxed in and it is necessary to have light and sun for my wellbeing.

When I am no longer able to get around I can still look outside and connect with the outside world.

NO RESIDENTIAL APARTMENTS! NO TOWER!

I have lived in Pyrmont at the same address for 15yrs immediately adjacent to the current Harbourside development and am therefore in an excellent position and with very detailed knowledge of the day to day relevance of this extremely detrimental proposal. I fully endorse all the objections made by Alex Greenwich (encls) and would like to add some of my own points additional to his.

The exclusively 4 level retail development in isolation is not in question for me.

However, the residential proposal is fundamentally flawed as the district is now approaching saturation of residential development and already exceeds peak traffic capacity most Mon-Fridays due to the single lane roads Darling Drive/Union Street/Pyrmont Bridge roads. There is no possibility of expanding these roads due to existing buildings lining their sides. Emergency services such as NSW FB Pyrmont station are (now) frequently delayed due to traffic and pedestrian congestion.

Pedestrian and bike densities at peak times are becoming dangerous with not infrequent accidents already happening which has necessitated both daily DHFA ranger patrols and intermittent NSW Police operations in an effort to reduce injuries.

The existing shopping and amenties infrastructure are also near to saturation. The sewerage mains are ancient and there have been several overflow events in recent years. The electricity grid for our apartments, immediately adjacent to the proposed development has started to suffer brown outs and loss of phases at times other than acute heat waves which implies the transmission and transformer networks are close to capacity.

Construction traffic will be another several years of nightmare after only just finishing years of heavy truck traffic whilst the ICC was demolished and rebuilt. The road surfaces are yet to be repaired or replaced as a consequence of this.

These are but a few of the very many problems the proposed residential over-development would create and once allowed they can not be retrospectively rectified.

In summary, I am particularly well placed and experienced to be able to knowledgeably object to the development proposal.

See uploaded document

Please refer to the attached for details

Please refer to the attached submission on behalf of the Owners Corporation Mirage Apartments SP 54229

I was unable to upload a copy of the email I sent to Mirvac on behalf of the Strata Committee objecting to their tower proposal,

Application Number SSD 16_7874
Redevelopment of Harbourside Shopping Centre

I wish to oppose the proposal on the following grounds:-
* The high-rise tower :-
o Is too tall for the surrounding area
o is too closed to Pyrmont Bridge and would interfere with the appreciation of its historically significance.
o Visually the it will make the Pyrmont side of Darling Harbour look unbalanced - at the very least if there is to be such a tower it should be at the southern end of the site providing some visual symmetry with the high-rise hotel currently under construction.
o Is too tall and too close to the foreshore
o Will overshadow and detract from the harbour waterside amenity
* The Pyrmont area and particularly Darling Drive cannot sustain a large increase in population using the roads and transport infrastructure.
o A large residential development accessed from Darling Drive will introduce further traffic movements which the roads cannot accommodate.
o The Pyrmont road system is currently overburdened during peak hour. A journey to access Anzac Bridge or the north/east bound distributor which normally takes 5 minutes can take over 30 minutes in peak hour now. Additional traffic generated by the hotel and the ICC entertainment facility will already compound this problem.
o Light rail and susses are currently working at capacity (on packed roads) in and out of Pyrmont-Ultimo during peak hour. A high-rise residential or office tower will further frustrate all transport systems.

Submission attached

Please see attached letter

Please see attached

Please see my letter in PDF attached.

Submission included as PDF attachment

14 February 2017

Mr Ben Lusher
Director - Key Site Assessments Department of Planning and Environment
GPO Box 39
SYDNEY NSW 2001


Dear Mr Lusher,

The National Trust of Australia (NSW) lodges its strong objections to the Staged Development Application (Concept Proposal) for a new retail shopping centre, residential apartment tower and public domain improvements (Redevelopment of the Harbourside Shopping Centre).

It is disingenuous that the "Overview of the Project" in the Architectural Design Report never mentions the proposed height of the new building on this site but rather states a maximum total Gross Floor Area (GFA) of 87,000 sq. metres, a concept and figure that would be meaningless to the general public. Considerable searching through the documentation reveals a proposed tower of 166 metres in height directly beside the western end of Pyrmont Bridge.

The Heritage Impact Statement concludes: -

"It is concluded that whilst the proposed redevelopment of the site will have a visual impact on the immediate setting of the Pyrmont Bridge and its surrounds, it is not dissimilar to the setting which already exists on the opposite, eastern side of the bridge - where the bridge surrounded by office towers- is still readily understood and appreciated within its setting."

This is a masterful understatement. The proposed development will certainly have a (major) visual impact on the setting of Pyrmont Bridge. The dominance of office towers on the eastern side of the bridge is given as a precedent. The conclusion seems to suggest that the office towers somehow enhance its setting (the bridge is still readily understood and appreciated within its setting.)

In reality, the bridge and Darling Harbour itself is being trivialised by the enormity of the tower development on the harbour foreshores, in the same way that the Meriton Tower in Parramatta now makes the adjoining Parramatta River appear to be a narrow canal.

The Harbourside proposal has a glass bridge taking out some of the Bridge stone balustrade and the Cockle Bay tower is replacing a pedestrian bridge with a ramp that covers much of the eastern side of Pyrmont Bridge.

The National Trust has long recognized the importance of the foreshores of Sydney Harbour, its associated waterways and Parramatta River. The Sydney Harbour Landscape Conservation Area was listed on the National Trust Register in September, 1982 and the Middle Harbour and Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers Landscape Conservation Areas were listed on the National Trust Register in January, 1983. All these listings urged the maintenance of strict controls to protect the scenic and cultural values and natural beauty of the foreshores.

As early as 1828 steps were taken to protect waterway foreshores. In Governor Darling's tenure, an August 21, 1828 Government Notice from the Colonial Secretary's Office stated that "The Government will further reserve to itself all land within one hundred feet of high water mark, on the sea coast, creeks, harbours and inlets. "

Sydney Harbour is world renowned for its bushland headlands and foreshore parks and its international reputation is intimately associated with its scenic harbour vistas. However, massive tower development originally confined to the centre of the Central Business District is now being sited on the foreshores. Such development is impacting negatively on one of the world's greatest harbours and inexorably limiting and degrading public access to waterways and their foreshores.

The National Trust reiterates its policy of 34 years calling for the implementation and maintenance of strict controls by appropriate authorities to protect the scenic, cultural and conservation values of the foreshores of Sydney Harbour, its associated waterways and the Parramatta River.

High rise development should not be sited on the foreshores and, where development is proposed, it should of lower scale nearer the water's edge and only stepping higher further from the waterways.

There should be generous foreshore parks established, not just limited public access and narrow walkways and there should be no major overshadowing of foreshore parks and waterways from new development proposed on or near the foreshore.

The Trust rejects the exhibited Concept Plan and calls for new proposals in keeping with the principles outlined above.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Quint
Director - Advocacy

Please see attached file.

Objection to the construction of the tower on grounds of need and justification as well as impact on context and neighbourhood character, built form and scale, density and landscape as set out in the NSW Planning & Environment Apartment Design guide; objection to the tower and podium on grounds of impact on the character of Darling Harbour, the relationship to Pyrmont, and the setting of the Pyrmont Bridge; impact on Sydney as a global city through erosion of the relationship with the harbour as a result of high density buildings crowded along the waterfront; failure to address key issues identified through the SEARS process.

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