The height of the proposed building is unacceptable in suggested location. Use the land for affordable housing just make the dwelling appropriate for its surroundings.

Submission: Objection to Proposed Development at 40–76 William Street, Leichhardt
I am a local resident writing to formally object to the proposed 11-storey development at 40–76 William Street, Leichhardt.
While I acknowledge current rezoning initiatives and the need for housing, this proposal pushes density far past an acceptable or sustainable rate for this site.

Rezoning plans should not mean reckless overdevelopment. An 11-storey tower is completely out of scale for this site, setting a dangerous precedent for the neighbourhood.

Leichhardt’s identity relies on its history, village feel, and low-to-mid-rise scale. Thoughtful warehouse conversions and adaptive reuse respect our existing heritage far better than a modern high-rise that won't match the quality or character of the area. We cannot afford to lose that charm.

Local streets are already choked and on-street parking is at capacity. Adding roughly 200 apartments will cause severe traffic congestion, parking overflow, and place unfair pressure on our already stretched local roads, schools, and services.

A tower of this size will loom over neighbouring homes, causing severe overshadowing, loss of privacy, and visual bulk.

Growth should enhance a suburb, not erase its identity. I urge the Department to reject this proposal in its current form and scale it down to a design that respects Leichhardt’s heritage, existing infrastructure, and community character.

I believe that the size of the development is too tall with too many units without additional local services being planned for or already started being developed for the suburb. I think that over development without public infrastructure seems to only serve property developers.

Block G - The Allen estate which is the TWO LEVEL apartment complex directly behind the proposed Block D of the William street development will be severely impacted. Through out all the literature ,there is no perspective, research or discussion of the shadowing or ANY impact which will cause multiple buildings here significant issues not to mention the visual aspect of staring at what seems to be a 6-8 story development as a apposed to a 2 & 3 level development currently at the Allen Estate.
Why is there no submission by the applicant showing the impact of the substantially and oversized building (Block D) whilst other aspects of the William street development show this. Why isn't the shadowing modelled?
Even the large photo of the total proposed completed job shows the enormity of all the buildings and Block G&F in the Allen Estate being dwarfed.
In December 2023, residents took a smaller, 5-storey version of this development to the NSW Land and Environment Court and it was refused, based on concerns about the inappropriate bulk and height, and significant overshadowing for neighboring properties which is still the case yet any the buildings are now bigger?
This proposal only includes provision of 5% so-called affordable housing for a limited period of 15 years, doing nothing to improve affordability.
Allowing only 14 days to lodge a submission is extremely poor towards something which is going to have dire impact in many areas to existing residents and infrastructure in Leichhardt. Not having the detailed impact of shadowing and noise for the existing residential buildings is truly disappointing.
Based on the above points I object to this project.

This is a great site for high density housing for many reasons
- excellent public transit connectivity with 5 mins walk to light rail, 3 mins walk to bus stop with 3 routes including the high frequency 440 route
- abundant green space in the surrounding area already
- short walk to daily needs e.g. grocery stores, pharmacy, restaurants and cafes
- short walk to schools
- away from noisy and polluted main roads or heavy industry
- the site is currently underutilised as storage. This doesn't provide very many jobs compared to other kinds of industry and means no existing homes need to be displaced during construction

It's well known that Sydney is experiencing a housing affordability crisis. If we can't allow new housing in areas with good amenities like this as our population booms, we don't stand a chance of solving the crisis

I wish to lodge my objections to a number of project elements, specifically:
1. A previous, smaller 5-story version of this proposal was rejected because of the impacts of its height and scale on our community. The notion that now an 11-story version is better is simply farcical. This is a blatant disregard for the intentions of policies aiming to improve housing opportunities.
2. A project of that scale, without supporting infrastructure, including improvements to public transport, would be a significant burden on residents in the area.
Approving this project in its latest form would be a direct show of disdain for residents in the area and confirm now that 'anything goes' when it comes to developers trying to cash in on a policy designed to improve housing, not monetise it for developers.
Thankyou for the opportunity to provide feedback, although the short time frame to do so does not inspire confidence in the transparency of this project application.

11 stories is so overscaled for this area. I live in North Street and it’s such a small laneway type street and is already dangerous manoeuvring along it when trucks and tradies speed through. Additionally, parking is horrendous .
The scale of building will cause overshadowing to my home and neighbourhood and this part of Leichhardt has mostly heritage homes on small streets. I can’t understand why Leichhardt needs to do all the heavy lifting in the Inner West to meet the state governments demands for more housing.
In addition, a smaller proposal was knocked back in the Land and Environment Court , but this larger proposal just skips the usual process and is ushered through. Surely that’s embarrassing at several levels of government.
Townhouses here I get, in keeping with the Allen Estate, but this developer MONSTER just reads as a greedy oversized whopper to make more money while the government sleeps on normal building processes so that they can win the next election.
Surely it doesn’t go ahead with these proportions.

This development is not appropriate for a quiet residential street in Leichhardt. High-density apartment projects are better suited to major transport corridors such as Parramatta Road, where the surrounding infrastructure is designed to accommodate increased traffic, population and activity.

Leichhardt's residential streets were never intended to support developments of this scale. The proposal would significantly increase traffic congestion, on-street parking demand and pedestrian activity in an area that is already under pressure.

Of particular concern is the close proximity of schools and childcare centres, all within approximately 100 metres of the site. The increased volume of vehicles would create additional safety risks for children, families and local residents during peak drop-off and pick-up times.

William Street already functions as a busy secondary road. Adding hundreds of additional vehicle movements would make it even more congested and less safe for everyone who uses it.

Large-scale developments should be located on main roads where the infrastructure can better support them—not on residential back streets where they fundamentally change the character, safety and liveability of the neighbourhood.

I understand that development and more housing is important and that there is a need for more density in areas of the inner city well served by transport and other amenities. I would like to see this development not affect neighbours to too great a degree and would like to focus my comments on both parking and traffic in North St Leichhardt .. which feeds down to William St. North St is already at full capacity. It is functionally a one way st with no ability for two cars to pass each other given the perpetual cars parked on both sides of the street. The addition of even 10 more cars seeking to park here would leave it impossible to find a park that people could lave their cars without restirction anywhere nearby. It is not clear to me from the documents where the entry and exit points will be for this development but I strongly object to any more traffic being fed directly onto North St - ie William St is much wider and better able to cope with increased flow. North St should have traffic calming as it is used already as a rat run between Paramatta Rd and City West Link. I feel like the car park to apartment ratio should not be reduced from what is stated and that efforts should be made that each apartment has at least one dedicated car space to avoid numerous cars splilling onto already full nearby streets seeking parking. I am also concerned about the park on the corner of North St and William St being in shade adn would like to point out this is already well used by many families and children.

I am writing to object to this development. Only 15 units (7.4% of the build) are allocated as affordable housing, which is below the level required under the National Housing Accord to justify any bonus height or FSR. Along with this, the quality of road and footpath in that location is already low, making it unpleasant and dangerous to walk over. I am not against new housing or development in the area, but this proposal is out of scale, poorly justified, and would come at a real cost to the people who already live here. I ask that this application be refused. Regards, Ames Pearson 29 Charles Street Leichhardt