The developers are back with a NEW massive development at the big empty site next to the Stones Corner roundabout.
The proposal is similar to the last one that they withdrew back in July with just a few changes - even after a big push back from the community.
It’ll still have four towers:
- One 28 storey residential tower (same as last time)
- One 26 storey student accommodation tower (same as last time)
- One 7 story mixed use commercial building and (same as last time)
- One 8 story mixed-use commercial building (instead of a 7 story aged-care facility)
The parts of the new proposal that are worse:
- There seems to be increases in building height and gross floor area
- Turning a potential local aged-care facility (something we need more of!) into another commercial building (something we already have excess of) doesn’t seem like a good outcome
- Still no commitment to public or genuinely affordable housing - which we desperately need
The parts of the new proposal that are better:
- A small increase to “publicly accessible” open space
- 170 less car spaces (this is a big win from our campaigning! But there are still too many car parks for what is meant to be a ‘Transport Oriented Development’ right next to bus and train stations)
- A tiny bit more deep planting
- Less driveways (although still too many for the traffic in the area in my opinion)
There’s another glimmer of good news in what is overall a pretty bad development proposal: the developers seem to be more open to contributing to the roundabout upgrade. But they are still being quite vague about this so it’s crucial that we ramp up the pressure on the Council to make this a condition of their development approval.
With this opening, now is the perfect time for us to double down and ramp up the pressure to make this happen.