The Timberyards by RTL Co.

Dear Planning Committee,

I am writing to express my strong objection to the proposed planning development for the Timberlands project. As a resident of Marrickville, I believe that our community does not need any more apartment blocks.

Firstly, I would like to point out that Wicks Park went up just last year, and there are already several new developments on Addison Road. Our roads are already congested, especially on weekends, making access to shopping center car parks extremely difficult. Parking in our streets is also quite limited and adding more apartment blocks will only exacerbate this issue.
Furthermore, the proposed development will not increase affordable housing in our area. On the contrary, it is likely to devalue our existing properties due to overcrowding. The additional pressure on our schools is another major concern. With insufficient space to accommodate extra children, class sizes will inevitably increase, impacting our children's ability to learn as teachers struggle to give them individual attention.
Access to medical practices is already challenging, and an increase in population will only worsen this situation. Our community's infrastructure is not equipped to handle the additional demand that the Timberlands project will bring.
In light of these concerns, I urge you to reconsider the planning development for the Timberlands project. Our community's well-being and quality of life should be prioritized over further development.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to formally express my objection to the proposed Timberyards development in its current form. While I acknowledge the potential for new housing, I believe the development as currently planned fails to meet the needs of our community and will result in significant negative impacts.

Excessive Building Height: The developers are proposing an 8-storey tower on Sydenham Road, which exceeds the legal limit of 3 storeys. This would overshadow surrounding homes, significantly reducing sunlight and privacy for existing residents.

Lack of Affordable and Family Housing: Of the 1,188 units proposed, only a small percentage (less than 10%) are designated as affordable housing. Furthermore, there is a severe lack of larger family units, with only 40 three-bedroom apartments out of the total. This development does not adequately address the growing need for affordable family housing in the area.

Insufficient Parking: The development includes only 216 parking spaces for 1,188 units, exacerbating existing parking issues in the surrounding streets and putting further strain on local infrastructure.

Impact on Local Services: Local schools, childcare centers, and medical facilities are already under pressure. The influx of new residents without corresponding upgrades to these essential services will only increase these strains.

Shadowing Issues: The 8-storey tower would cast significant shadow over homes on Sydenham Road, Victoria Road, and surrounding streets, violating legal limits for overshadowing and diminishing the quality of life for current residents.

Given these concerns, I strongly urge the NSW government to reconsider the current development proposal and make significant amendments. The focus should be on ensuring affordable housing, respecting legal height limits, and providing adequate infrastructure to support the increased population.

Thank you for considering my views. I hope you will take the necessary steps to protect the well-being of our community.

I am a resident of 25 years in Silver Street Marrickville. I object to this submission for a number of reasons. They are:
* Parking: Although they say having less car spaces encourages public transport use - people still own cars. There's no guarantee that people will not have a car and with over 1000 units - that is a lot of cars even if 30% of residents don't have cars! It makes life in Marrickville more unliveable, especially for the many elderly Greek residents that have lived here for 40+ years. It also impacts the parking for primary school pick ups with the main pick up point being Thompson and Farr Street. PUT IN MORE CAR SPACES. ONE PER UNIT. People can use them for storage if they don't have a car!
*Height: It's an overbearing structure. Imposing. Three stories should be the maximum. It is too close to small residential houses on Farr Street and Sydenham Road.
*Shadowing: It will cast a huge shadow over residents houses. It should not be higher than one storey on Farr Street especially.
*Safety: It overlooks a primary school playground. This is a very poor planning decision. Students may see people in various states of undress or worse! Also the construction phase will be dangerous for school children walking to school as Farr Street is their main thoroughfare with the lights on Sydenham Rd at Farr St. Both my children went to Marrickville Public School.
*Traffic: Marrickville is a very hard suburb to get out of. The streets are small. There are traffic jams constantly at every exit point - to get on to Princes Highway, to go up to Newtown via Enmore Rd, to go via Livingstone Rd, and on Edinburgh Rd near Marrickville Metro. Buses get stuck in long queues going up to the universities.
*Amenity: Marrickville does not have the school amenities to cope with the influx of people. The school hall at Marrickville Public School is tiny. They have limited classrooms. Same with the high school. There's not enough out door space or sporting ovals - with both the Newtown Jets and the AFLW now at Henson Park there's less amenity for community sports teams up this end of Marrickville.
All in all it is too large, too imposing, and not enough parking spaces. It is too close to the old residential areas in Marrickville. If you want this type of structure - build it closer to Sydenham station in the industrial area.

It’s an illegal height on Sydenham road side of 8 stories rather then the legal 3.
There is already not enough parking on the street so 216 spaces for a 1188 units is not acceptable.
It’s laughable that this is supposed the assist with housing in the area when there are only 40 3 bed units.

This development is by SCAPE who provide for profit housing for students. The AFR recommends build to buy developments, not build to rent developments.

This development exceeds the permitted height for tower block on Sydenham Road which is 3 storeys however the developers are proposing to build 8 storeys. This proposal is not only excessive and illegal but will also overshadow surrounding homes, negatively impacting the community.

Out of the 1,188 units, there are only:
40 3-bedroom units.
275 2-bedroom units
This plan does not offer housing for families who desperately need it.

Less than 10% of these units are set aside for Affordable Housing and the rent for those is pegged at 20% lower than “market rate”.
This plan does not provide enough affordable housing for low-income residents. In today's climate we need more housing assistance.

This development is definitely NOT what the community needs. There are more than a thousands apartments and less that 10% will be affordable and they will only be rented at less than 20% market rents. A very large number will be co living - this means designed for temporary accomodation or for profit student housing. It's massive - far bigger than the WICKs apartments.

1,188 units are coming, with only 216 parking spaces planned.
It's going to get even harder to park in surrounding streets. I’ve lived near the proposed site for decades, traffic in this area is gridlocked on weekends, with many people living in my small complex having to park several blocks away. This development will exacerbate this problem. Proponents of this development blithely say that those who move into these apartments can ditch their cars and use public transport. While the new Metro is a walk away, many people work in areas that are only served by the bus service and the inner west bus system has been degraded by privatisation. People will need cars but where will they park?

I support this proposal. We should be building much more around the metro train line, and particularly focusing on types of development that put less cars on the road. This ticks that box with less parking.

I also note Marrickville Public School is only at 50% capacity so there’s room for student population to grow, and this is also short walking distance from the shops.

Thank you for the opportunity to make this submission regarding the development proposal for the Timberyards on Victoria Road.
Years ago, when the DA for the Wicks Apartment blocks was pushed through, the area across the road (the site of the proposed Timberyards) was to be an arts and cultural precinct. While accommodation and housing is important, I object to the way that proposals are put through with very little community consultation or developer accountability.
The Inner West Council LGA is in desperate need for social and affordable housing. As far as I am aware the Wicks apartment blocks contain none - despite this being raised in response to the DA.
The Timberyards is again failing to respond to the needs of people in this area by offering for profit housing solutions. I understand less than 10% of the development will be affordable and even that term is questionable. 20% below market rate is most definitely not affordable for most. Like the SCAPE developments across the city, these are not affordable options for students. Please do some research.
I have not seen any plans in this application that deal with traffic or access to schools, hospitals and other services.
We are in the middle of a housing crisis and this development does little to help.
Regards,
Melanie

We are the owners of 199 Victoria Road and object to the proposed development of Timberyards, Marrickville without the consolidation of our property and nearby properties into the master plan. The development will severely impart the value of our property and future development prospects.

I support the project if the car parking supply and traffic generation are significantly reduced.
See detailed submission attached.

To whom it may concern

I am objecting to the project based on a few specific reasons.
1. Having 216 parking spots for over 1000 units is not actually going to work. I am a regular visitor to many businesses in the area around the site and its already hard enough to find a car spot now to attend to business. This is a major detriment to the local residents and businesses in at last a 1klm radius or more. While everyone would like to say the people who live there can use public transport in essence this will be unlikely and impractical, and there really needs to be enough spots for 1 for each unit. I also cannot catch public transport to those business's due to unreliable public transport that takes at least 30 minutes longer to get there.

2. The affordable housing is minimal. If developers want to build homes they need to have quite a lot more affordable homes for renters. Its time that we actually do have a better process for having homes for people who work in the area. The site is not far from RPA hospital and we should be ensuring that when we do these builds that there is a lot more affordable homes. It doesn't look like there is going to be many of those in this development.

3. The height of the building is MUCH higher than is currently zoned for that area. This is not in keeping with the local area and will mean that it will change the feel of Marrickville as well as impact local residents.

4. There is no infrastructure to support this. Schools and roads and shopping centre is packed to the rafters. Some days I can barely get into the Metro and find a park on weekends to do grocery shopping. This will just increase and create a barely liveable situation for people.

5. There is a lot of studio and 1 bedroom apartments. Are these going to be over priced for students and frontline workers? Or whats the target market? Seems like its just mainly for making a lot of money and not to promote community and organise homes for families.

I do agree we need more housing and this is a site that it can be done well on. Unfortunately I don't think this plan does this.

This proposal is for a large volume of high quality, well located housing near shops, amenities and transport. If not here, where?

It will substantially improve the local streetscape, contribute to lowering housing costs and will enable more people to live in a well-serviced area of Sydney. There is plenty of infrastructure and local school capacity for it. It should be approved as soon as possible.

I support this development as it provides much-needed housing supply in Markville in reasonable distance of the CBD, currently apartments here are overpriced in terms of what you get in quality.

Compared with Melbourne where you can live even closer to the city and pay even less for the same quality apartment in terms of buying and renting.

I strongly object to the project. I am extremely concerned about the number of residences being built. It is too many people to have condensed into that small of an area. There are very few car parks for the number of dwellings, by a long shot. It is already impossible to find a car park in the area, weekdays or weekends, this will create a huge problem, massive problem for local residents not being able to park their cars. The local area doesn't have the infrastructure to support this many new people in a small space. My daughter goes to dancing on the weekend near the bowling club and there is never any chance of getting a park, if there is a family member coming to watch her no hope of getting a park either at our house or near the dance studio. The expectation is likely that people in this development will walk to Sydenham station - well that is already a very dangerous walk. I walk there daily and am getting swiped by bikes on the footpath, have fallen over on the uneven footpath and I have almost been run over a number of time at the pedestrian crossing outside the bowling club. I know of two people who've actually been hit by cars there. Traffic in the area is becoming a problem, especially along Victoria road, this will only make that much worse. I am extremely concerned about the impact to Marrickville Public School - extremely concerned. My two kids go there, they are in Kindy and year 1 so will be there for some time to come. The new development totally encroaches on the school, it will be overlooking the school. It's not appropriate for a development of this size to be overlooking a school, the understanding that I have is that people will be able to see into the school.

We also have a child at Marrickville High School - there is no space at the school, its enrolments I believe have doubled in a very short period of time, only a few years. The school is grossly understaffed and under resourced. My son in year 10 frequently did not have regular teacher for subjects, there wasn't enough equipment in all of the rooms. I understand that not all of the dwellings support families - but some will, this will still bring in extra people to the area. I am not against extra people coming into the area, but we need to have the right infrastructure to support it.

This will be a complete disaster. There are too many units in a very small space, not enough parking by a long shot, it will destroy the neighbourhood, it will create havoc for the kids at school.

I would support something with a much smaller number of units, 100 or so, dwellings that supporter families and it must have at least 1 car park per unit.

I am making this objection primarily due to the proposed 8 storey height of the proposed development. That is too high for all the obvious reasons, including overshadowing surrounding existing properties, which is unfair. Too many residents that will need catering for from parking to health care to child care etc. Too much for an already bulging suburb. As a resident of Marrickville for 28 years, I have seen this valid point disregarded by council so many times.

Please find attached submission letter.
I request my name to be withheld.

Can you please look into fixing our roads in the area once the construction has been completed? I find that during the construction there are more large semitrailers on the roads and this congests our streets and ruins the existing roads.

Is it possible to see a plan of where exactly it will back onto Victoria Rd so I can see if it will effect me at all?

I object to the project in its current form for the following reasons.

1. Parking. The project includes parking spaces for only around one quarter of the units planned. The developers have said that they do not anticipate that all of the residents will want to use a car. As a local resident, my experience of the neighbourhood is that this expectation does not reflect reality. Even with an abundance of public transport options, almost all of my neighbours also have at least one car per residence. The lack of parking will cause havoc in the neighbourhood, which is already a busy area with few unrestricted parking spots.

2. Overshadowing. The plan is for 8-storey buildings fronting Sydenham Rd. The opposite side of the street is composed of residential houses 1 or 2 storeys high. The overshadowing analysis shows that most (not all) of the affected residences will receive the required 2 hours of sunlight in winter, but even so, a number of them will have their access to sunlight significantly affected. It is also not clear to me whether the development would include windows overlooking the primary school, which I believe would be inappropriate.

3. Infrastructure. Another large development was recently completed a block or two away from this site, with no new schools, shops, medical centres, or other services opening to service that community. The addition of another 2000 or more residents will put an additional strain on already scarce resources.

4. The plan involves primarily 2-bedroom units. The local area is already well-serviced by this size of dwelling. What is needed is larger accommodation (3 or 4 bedrooms) so that couples who live in the area can have families without being forced to leave their communities.

5. Further comments. I don't object in general to the construction of apartment buildings in my area. I can see that it's a necessity, and I would welcome affordable housing in particular. However, I don't think this plan is appropriately adapted to the current needs of the community or to local infrastructure.

See attached submission with points raised - thank you

Dear Inner west council,

I am writing to formally object to this proposed development application on the following grounds.
1. The project fails to deliver the community benefits which seem to partly be the justification for its quick approval. My grounds for this statement are particularly focused on the large percentage of high cost for profit student accomodation operated by SCAPE. These units will be prioritising short term occupation with a high turnover and will inflate the rental market in the area .This seems to contradict the stated goals of the project to provide sustainable housing. These kind of student housing developments tend to have a negative impact on local community areas.
2. The build to rent model is not designed in invest in long term housing solutions and will again inflate the rental market without providing stable accomodation. This will also negatively impact community in the area which is part of the value that has generated the inner wests economic success.
3. Less than ten percent of housing in the development is designated as affordable. The definition of affordable at 20 percent below market value will also become meaningless when rents are inflated due to the economic actions from the other 90 percent of housing in the development.
4. I object to such a blatant profit making scheme going through under state significance when it is clearly meeting the needs of the developer and not the community .
5. It is too large for the area to absorb. Mega developments do not enrich neighbourhoods. It would be far better to offer smaller scale community driven housing especially given the proximity to the public school which will struggle to absorb this many new potential students.
6. Local infrastructure. The inner west is at capacity for its current services and will struggle to absorb this many new high turnover residents in one position. This is not the value adding development that the sector needs. It could well end up as a ghetto isolated from the rest of the area which would present significant social problems.

I am a Marrickville resident in the area local to the proposed development. I object to the project in it's current form for the following reasons:
1. There are insufficient parking spaces provided. For the proposed 1,188 units proposed, only 216 parking spaces have been provided. It is likely that at least a majority of people renting apartments in the development will own cars. This means that at least 378 cars will have to find parking in the local streets, where parking is already scarce. There are many houses in the area without parking, so any new development should provide sufficient parking for the residences created and should not contribute to worsen local parking issues.
2. There are insufficient number of affordable units provided. Many local residents are already struggling to find affordable housing.New developments designated as state significant should be required to provide at least 20% affordabel housing as this is the section of the community facing the most difficulties with housing.
3. I am very concerned about the impacts of traffic on Victoria and Sydenham Roads. These roads are already very busy and this development will contribute a significant number of additional cars to an already congested intersection.