I write as a resident of St Leonards to object to the development planned for 33-37 Herbert St. Herbert Street already experiences severe traffic jams during morning rush hour, and is the main means of access to the RNSH birth unit. With the additional traffic from this many new residents, plus added commercial traffic, the road will become very backed up. Apart from inconvenience to existing residents, this will pose a big problem for expectant mothers who need to access the hospital birth unit.

I object to the proposed State Significant Development application SSD-88511459 for the shop top housing development at 33 & 37 Herbert Street, St Leonards.

1. Excessive Density and Scale
The proposed development introduces an exceptionally high density of over 400 dwellings on a relatively small site. This is significantly denser than existing developments along Herbert Street and Dalleys Road and is out of scale with the surrounding built environment.

The scale of the proposed building, including a height of up to 135 metres and a Floor Space Ratio of 7.15:1, represents a substantial intensification that is inconsistent with the current character of the neighbourhood and will place considerable strain on local infrastructure.

2. Traffic Congestion and Road Capacity
The proposal includes over 400 residential dwellings, 2 levels of commercial/retail space, and 377 car parking spaces, indicating a substantial increase in traffic generation.

Herbert Street and Dalleys Road are both narrow, single-lane (two-way) streets with limited capacity for expansion and are not designed to accommodate the level of traffic that this development will generate.

Herbert Street already experiences significant congestion, particularly during peak periods, with queues extending several blocks around the Herbert Street and Dalleys Road junction. This proposal will materially worsen existing bottleneck conditions.

3. Safety Risks to Pedestrians and Children
Herbert Street is heavily used by children walking to Artarmon Public School and families accessing Naremburn Park. Increased vehicle movements associated with the development will significantly increase risk to pedestrians, particularly young children.

4. Impact on Access to Royal North Shore Hospital
Herbert Street and surrounding roads are commonly used for access to Royal North Shore Hospital, including its maternity and birth units. Increased traffic congestion may delay patients, medical staff, and urgent care access.

5. Noise and Loss of Neighbourhood Amenity
The introduction of retail/commercial premises, increased traffic volumes, and higher population density will substantially increase noise levels and reduce residential amenity.

6. Insufficient Parking and Increased Street Parking Pressure
Street parking in Herbert Street and Dalleys Road is already fully utilised. The development is likely to increase demand for street parking and reduce availability for existing residents.

7. Impact on Public Open Space
Naremburn Park is already heavily used. Increased population will place additional pressure on park facilities and reduce accessibility.

8. Community Infrastructure and Services
The development will place additional strain on local infrastructure including waste management, pest control, schools, childcare, and other community services.

I respectfully request that the Department refuse SSD-88511459 and the associated rezoning proposal.
The proposal:
• lacks sufficient strategic merit;
• is inconsistent with the objectives of the NSW Industrial Lands Action Plan;
• results in the unnecessary loss of strategically important industrial land;
• seeks excessive height, bulk and density;
• generates unacceptable overshadowing and amenity impacts;
• creates significant visual and urban design impacts;
• fails to adequately address cumulative impacts; and
• is not in the public interest.

To whom it may concern,
I am an owner and resident of a neighbouring property on Herbert Street and wish to object to the proposed development at 33-37 Herbert Street.
While I understand that St Leonards will continue to grow and evolve, I do not believe this proposal has adequately demonstrated that a development of this scale can be accommodated without unacceptable impacts on surrounding residents and local infrastructure.
The most significant issue is the sheer size of what is being proposed. The site is currently industrial land, yet the application seeks to rezone it into a major residential development (7 times more than the current building size limit) containing 413 apartments across multiple towers, including one reaching 39 storeys. This is a substantial departure from the existing planning controls and represents a dramatic increase in density. In my view, such an exceptional uplift should only be supported where there is clear evidence that the additional height and bulk are justified and that supporting infrastructure is capable of handling the increase in population. That evidence does not appear to be available.
I am also concerned by the unresolved questions surrounding water infrastructure and fire safety. We already experience water pressure issues, sharing water mains with extra 413 new apartments would only exacerbate the problem. It seems premature to approve a development of this magnitude when there is still uncertainty about whether essential services can support hundreds of additional apartments. Reliable water supply is not only an infrastructure issue but also a critical safety issue including the ability to meet fire safety requirements.
The approach taken to wind tunnel impacts is equally disappointing. The streets surrounding the site are heavily used by residents, commuters and visitors every day and existing wind tunnel conditions are already experienced nearby. Comprehensive wind tunnel testing has not yet been completed, and this assessment must be undertaken and reviewed before any approval is considered, and not after, as currently proposed by the developer.
The construction phase will place a considerable burden on us, the residents of Herbert Towers. Excavation for a large basement and the construction of towers adjacent to existing buildings will inevitably generate years of noise, vibration, dust and disruption. This will not be a short-term inconvenience but a prolonged impact on our daily lives. There is also the possibility of damage to neighbouring buildings arising from excavation and construction activity. Any approval should require comprehensive pre-construction surveys, independent monitoring and clear accountability for any damage that occurs.
Finally, this proposal should not be assessed in isolation. St Leonards is already experiencing intense redevelopment, with multiple large projects under construction or in planning stages. Residents are dealing with ongoing road disruptions, increased traffic, construction activity and growing pressure on local services. The combined effect of these developments is being felt across the area, yet the cumulative impact has not been adequately addressed in this application.
For these reasons, I do not support the proposal in its current form. I respectfully request that you give careful consideration to the impacts on existing residents and require a far more rigorous assessment of infrastructure capacity, wind effects, construction impacts and cumulative development pressures before any approval is considered.
Kind regards

My family and I have resided in Tower B of 19 Herbert Street, St Leonards NSW 2065  since 2005. I strongly object to the proposed development on the basis of the numerous significant detrimental ongoing impacts it will have to our family should the project proceed. I declare that I have not made any political donations in the past two years.

The scale of the proposed development is unsuitable for the proposed development site and surrounding establishments. The scale of the project far exceeds what the current zoning rules allow for. Herbert Street suitably catered for residential and low-rise, low density office space. With the hospital development in recent years, road traffic on Herbert Street has become too busy and quite unsafe for our family (which consist of myself, my autistic 4-year old son and two parents almost 80 years old) and other residents to move around safely daily such that numerous zebra crossings have been created in the short stretch of Herbert Street between Pacific Highway and Ella Street. With the current high traffic flow outside our building we already fear for our safety when driving out onto Herbert Street and when turning off Herbert Street back into our basement carpark during peak hours. The proposed development would skyrocket the safety risk to our family and also other young families, pets, hospital patrons and staff which are a large number.

Another safety concern is that the water infrastructure does not support the scale of the proposed development. The development of the Royal North Shore Hospital has dangerously reduced the water pressure to our building. Should there be a significant fire the sprinklers would not having available the required water pressure to dispense the required amount of water to battle the fire outbreak. The proposed development would put further significant demands on a water infrastructure that cannot scale up as required putting the lives of all current residents at risk from fire. To my understanding, Sydney Water has never rectified the water pressure concerns our Owners Corporation Committee has raised over the recent past years meaning the required infrastructure does not exist to support the proposed development.

Noise and air pollution that would result from the proposed development is also a significant concern for my family which consists mainly of vulnerable individuals. The daily movement of construction vehicles, materials and site personnel in and out of the site for the significant duration of the project would introduce an unprecedented level of noise and material pollution for a protracted period of time. This noise and building material pollution would be compounded by the significant drilling, banging and vibration that we would have to endure during the project. We are also concerned about potential structural damage to our building that the extended period of drilling, banging and vibration the proposed project would cause to our building given that our building is a fairly old building already facing repair needs due to age. 

The apartment we live in is North facing which was a key requirement for us when purchasing the apartment back in 2007. Having adequate sunlight flood through the apartment in the morning has given our family the daily quality of life, health and wellbeing that one benefits from having adequate morning sun through the apartment. Our daily family laundry drying needs have also been adequately enabled by having unobstructed access to morning and early afternoon sunlight. The proposed development of two high-rise residential towers would block out a very significant amount of the daily optimal natural sunlight our apartment normally receives, effectively throwing our home into a situation of ongoing shade. Having our normal amount of daily sunlight blocked out from our living space will adversely and irreversibly impact my family's daily quality of life and wellbeing in our very own home. My family which includes two elderly parents have planned to spend the rest of their lives living in this apartment and so the proposed development has created significant anxiety, sleepless nights and worry in them regarding the diminished quality of their living space in the not too distant future.

For the past almost two decades our family has enjoyed the peace, tranquility and enjoyment of an unobstructed North facing skyline view. This enjoyment has been simple, ongoing and basic which reduces stress when we spend time out on the balcony or gaze outside to enjoy the view from our home after difficult days at work, preschool or childcare. My son who has autism has a bedtime ritual where he and his grandmother stand at the main bedroom window gazing at the beautiful buildings and lights of the Chatwood skyline in the distance. This daily ritual is part of my son's much needed pre-bedtime routine to help him emotionally regulate and to calm his nervous system down to the point that he can fall asleep and have a restful night's sleep. Some nights we have tried skipping the 'looking out at the Chatwood lights' pre-bedtime ritual due to time constraints but he would cry and experience significant distress. As a result we are in a position of not being able to skip his pre-bedtime ritual of my son experiencing the North-facing night skyline view from our dark master bedroom window, but we can only reduce the nightly duration of this ritual of his. The proposed development would remove my son's access and ability to enjoy this key nightly regulating ritual which would adversely impact his mental and emotional wellbeing. 

Yet another key concern that my family and I have is the wind tunnel effect that the proposed development would create. A the proposed scale of the development, the two high-rise building would create a dangerous wind tunnel effect along the vicinity of our home that would risk our physical safety as we go about our daily lives outdoors along the pavements on either side of Herbert Street. The wind tunnel effect, of which we have seen no evidence of testing from the developer, could easily push small children, frail elderly people and small pets into traffic compromising their safety. The demographic of Herbert Street includes a high percentage of small children (my son included), frail elderly people (my parent included) and small pets so this scenario that I describe is rooted in our daily living reality. My family and I have personally experienced the dangerous wind tunnel effects around the numerous high-rise buildings that have recently mushroomed up around Pacific Highway just city bound from the St Leonards station, such that we have to walk most of the time further inside the pavement from the road than we normally would, and hold on tightly to my son's hand because we fear the dangers of the wind tunnel effect that have been introduced by the building of these high-rise residential buildings. I am concerned that the untested wind tunnel effect from this proposed development could at some point unexpectedly and forcefully propel me or one of my family members into the normally fast flowing Herbert Street road traffic.

Last but not least I am concerned that the proposed development is right in the flight path for the Royal North Shore Hospital medical helicopters that have to date had safe unobstructed access to the immediate surrounding airspace.

For the reasons I have stated in this submission, I strongly object proceeding with the proposed development.

I object to this proposal on the basis of:
Density and scale of the southern tower, being vastly out of proportion with the surrounding area creating wind tunnel downwash impacts, overshadowing, and substantial traffic impacts that would impact Herbert St, Ella St and the surrounding area.
The Traffic assessment makes a claim that the existing development generates more traffic than the proposed development, which means the proposed development would result in a reduced operational traffic impact on the local road network. I hold strong doubts about this methodology, as someone who walks past these properties daily the assumptions around operation and traffic generation of these sites do not appear valid. The applicant should undertake a traffic count assessment to understand vehicle trips to and from the existing site, to fully appreciate the comparative traffic generation from the proposal to the existing site use. This is particularly pertinent given how busy the intersection of Ella St and Herbert St is during AM and PM peaks (by vehicles turning right from Herbert St onto Ella St, and vehicles turning right from Ella St onto Herbert St). There has also not been any intersection analysis of Ella/Herbert St, where a SIDRA model should be run to understand the existing level of service and future level of service.
The wind assessment prepared for this development identifies ground-level wind tunnelling effects, which as someone who walks along Herbert St and Ella St daily, would result in a reduction in amenity and quality of life for pedestrians and local residents in the area. It is not appropriate to defer proper testing until after approval, and the applicant should front up this assessment prior to approval.
The noise assessment page 26 refers to standard construction hours as identified in the ICNG, yet does not give any appropriate justification to extend saturday hours to 3pm, other than 'the proponent wants to'. These standard hours are set for a reason, and allow reprieve from construction noise impacts and resulting amenity loss of neighbouring residents. This is also over a construction period of 4.2 years, which is an audacious ask from the developer on top of requesting a building height well outside of the typical scale of the locality. The noise assessment itself openly states that construction activities would surpass noise criteria for the nearest receivers (i.e. 19-23 Herbert St, among others). The applicant must consider reducing the building scale of the south tower and stick to ICNG construction hours.
The proposed development would also put a great strain on the already overburdened water utilities network in the locality, where there are existing concerns around water pressure and fire safety. A development of this scale would compound on fire safety compliance issues, and the developer must provide evidence that their proposal would not further jeopardise the safety of existing residents.

The assessment and consent authority considering this proposal is urged to hear the valid concerns of neighbouring residents who stand to lose amenity in both the long and short term, due to this proposal that is vastly out of scale with surrounding land uses.

1. Serious overshadowing of my current building. My apartment will be left with no sunshine all day as the new building is comparably too huge.

2. Privacy concerns as it gives a direct looking-in from the new towers

This is a proposal made by parties with absolutely no care and concern to community and no sense of aesthetics of how to develop a good neighbour. If such a building would be approved, it will even further harm the reputation of St Leonards.