I am a resident of Sunnyside crescent, Castlecrag

I note the traffic impacts on Sunnyside crescent are predicted to be “extreme delay”.

There are only 2 entry points into the Castlecrag peninsula, one being Edinburgh road and the other Sunnyside crescent. Edinburgh rd is a convenient entry point located at traffic lights. Although this intersection is also on the road corridor from the Northern Beaches to the city, so it is already a busy intersection. As a result people wanting to come into Castlecrag, including residents, the Gleneon school community and employees and patients at the Castlecrag Hospital will “rat run” alongside Sunnyside crescent. This is already an issue on our street, and we have previously made complaints about the speed cars take along our narrow road.

Turning right from Sunnyside crescent during peak hour is difficult and dangerous. In fact, at all times to turn right (ie head north) we almost always revert to using the “right hand turn” at Edinburgh rd road due to the extreme difficulty of turning right from Sunnyside crescent. Additional traffic attempting both left and right hand turns is going to create long and dangerous wait times.

Further, frequently cars are parked on both sides of the street, so cars must give way to each other to get through.

In this context, to add extra traffic on our street will be completely unmanageable and dangerous. Sunnyside crescent was not designed to handle through traffic. For anyone who drives on the road this would be obvious.

Most importantly, there is NO footpath on Sunnyside crescent; that is, the road is a “shared space” between pedestrians, cyclists and cars. While there has been some agitation for a footpath over time (ie decades), it has proven unachievable to have a footpath along this road that would be consistent with the heritage of Castlecrag. Therefore Sunnyside crescent is not just a road for cars, but it is where kids cycle and scooter, residents walk their dogs, parents and grandparents walk with prams, and elderly residents walk (sometimes in frames) to maintain mobility. Safety cannot be maintained on this street with increased traffic and parked cars.

To accept that Sunnyside crescent can tolerate any extra traffic is irresponsible and potentially deadly.

The original DA for 38 units was acceptable to all parties including the council, developer and community.

The new application for 150 units is almost 4 times larger in both scale and 14 stories high vs 5 originally.

This will result in significant overshadowing of all residents of The Postern road, the Community Library, the Early Learning centre and the memorials to both Walter and Marion Burley Griffen - internationally and locally acclaimed by both woman's rights groups and architectural practitioners.

The infrastructure cannot cope with up to 300 additional vehicles of the new residents alone, to say nothing of the shopping centre visitors.

There is no mass transit within 3 - 4 km making this high density project unsuitable for this location, it should be in North Sydney or Chatswood - there are only 5 story building in all the surrounding suburbs until we reach these allocated High density approved areas with mass transit options.

There is universal opposition to this proposal from all residents in both Castlecrag and the surrounding areas as well as the local council and Health and Safety concerns regarding congestion and access.

The historical heritage preservation and negative impact will be severe and diminish both Sydney's and Australia's impact on the International stage with woman's rights groups and arctectural practitioners .

Since we live very close to the proposed building in a small apartment complex 3 The Postern, Castlecrag, I feel strongly about the 14 storeys being built. Our apartment building will be overshadowed and overlooked by units as we are on the top penthouse level. The noise of various garbage disposal trucks as well as numerous retail trucks making very early morning deliveries will be noisy and will be heard from our bedrooms at night keeping us awake. Our residential complex will be disturbed by reversing trucks and bottles being collected by the garbage disposal companies before 6:30am in the mornings as the driveway into the new building complex is extremely close to 3 The Postern Apartments. The road into and out of Edinburgh Rd which only has one access to the peninsular will be grid lock especially in the mornings and late afternoons. Cars will be queued up at the traffic lights if wanting to turn into Eastern Valley way. The heritage listed buildings and the entire peaceful feel of Castlecrag will be disturbed. I think 5 levels is adequate. Anything more would completely destroy the feel of this beautiful suburb and would not honour the Walter Burley Griffin ethos.

Castlecrag is one of Sydney’s most historically and architecturally significant suburbs, originally designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin in the early 20th century. The suburb retains a unique garden suburb character defined by low-density housing, natural bushland settings, and a deliberate integration of buildings with the landscape.
A multi-storey development of this nature is fundamentally at odds with this established character. It would set an undesirable precedent for further out-of-character development in the area and erode the heritage streetscape and visual cohesion that makes Castlecrag distinctive.
Council should assess whether the proposal adequately responds to the Griffin legacy and the suburb’s heritage significance, and whether it meets the neighbourhood character objectives under the Willoughby DCP.

The proposed development is excessive in height and bulk relative to the surrounding built environment. Castlecrag is characterised by low-rise residential dwellings, and a multi-storey development of this scale would create an imposing visual presence inconsistent with the scale of neighbouring properties.
The additional height will result in significant overshadowing of adjoining and nearby properties, reducing access to natural sunlight during key daylight hours — particularly in winter months. This constitutes an unreasonable amenity impact on neighbouring residents and is contrary to the objectives of the Willoughby Local Environmental Plan (LEP) and Development Control Plan (DCP), which seek to protect residential amenity and solar access.

The project fails to consider the history of the suburb. The project will result in extraordinary traffic snarls at Edinburgh Rs and Sailors Bay Rd. The previously approved submission was an appropriate balance. This is an opportunistic and mercenary effort on the part of the project proponents. It should be rejected.

This development will disturb the beautiful peace and quiet of this lovely neighbourhood, there will be too much traffic and people. This will be detrimental to the quality of life to the current residents.

I object due to impact I believe it will have

This application uses a public-interest policy mechanism to extract private planning concessions, delivers nothing affordable, degrades neighbourhood infrastructure and character, and if approved, hands every future luxury developer in this area a roadmap to do the same. The community loses twice — once now, and once in every copycat application that follows.

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