Please help a local community group in Newcastle, NSW

A different type of blog post here. I am part of a community in Newcastle which is engaged in opposing a massive overdevelopment in our local area. The development proposal is an example of developer greed and disregard for the local citizens and their amenity. It compromises almost everything that a neighbourhood would consider important. We have been fighting this for a few years now and have won the right to be heard in the Land and Environment Court in February 2021. The developer has submitted a revised application with very minimal changes to the original DA. We now must respond again through the usual response process. We are getting to a critical stage for 11-17 Mosbri Crescent. This blog post is to encourage you all to please write a submission to Newcastle City Council expressing your strong views about the amended DA2019/00061 by 17:00 September 15, 2020 (Newcastle, NSW, Australia time). That is TOMORROW (Tuesday) We will really appreciate any help. Anyone can submit an objection to this over-development no matter where you live. The more we get the better it is for our fight. Please help if you can

The Community was able to submit approximately 180 objections for version 1 of this DA.

We need to get similar (or more!) engagement in response to the amended DA.

The process is heavily biased against the Community and it is essential that our voice is strong – number of objections is very important.

To help you quickly write an objection, we offer some points as follows:

• The rezoning and amendments to the LEP announced by the Department of Planning in April 2018 promoted a seven storey building, so why does the amended DA still have a nine storey tower?
• The rezoning included a site-specific Development Control Plan – the DA should align with this in terms of layout and heights, but it doesn’t. The DA should be required to comply with the DCP, which means that any habitable rooftop space should take up no more than 20% of the roof plane of the floor below – this would rule out the rooftop pool and vergola that will look over Arcadia Park, destroying the serenity for human and animal users of this wonderful community asset.
• For neighbours with school children at Newcastle East Public School – the DCP required setbacks of between 7.5m and 14m from Kitchener Parade. The DA only offers a setback of 6m – this is not a good outcome for the NEPS and nor are the excessive heights.
• The amended DA still presents an unacceptable impact on significant heritage items, including the Obelisk and King Edward Park, and adjacent heritage conservation zones. It will also set an undesirable precedent in terms of relationship to heritage items for future site planning in the city.
• Despite the Council’s Urban Design Consultative Group’s recommendation that all significant trees on site be retained because they “provide character to the site and its surrounds and assist in making an attractive interface with surrounding development and Arcadia Park”, the development will require the destruction of all large trees onsite.
• The development requires extensive engineering works to fill the mining voids beneath the property and beyond with concrete grouting. Newcastle Council has not required the developer to produce final plans that will ensure the safety and integrity of substrata that could be affected by such works in the area. This is a big risk to neighbouring properties.
• Arcadia Park forms part of the Newcastle Recreation Reserve, which is currently awaiting ministerial approval for State significant Heritage listing. The hard work of dedicated volunteers has restored Arcadia Park to a thriving littoral rainforest in the centre of the city, providing habitat to birds and other wildlife rarely seen in the city. Don’t let this haven be destroyed.
• The importance of views and attractive ridgelines are recognised in Newcastle’s Local Planning Strategy. Council has expressly stated that these need to be preserved with this development and local character respected. But this development does none of this. It will destroy local character.
• The amended DA includes another bushfire report, which suggests the RFS consent conditions concerning construction standards should be deleted. The Peterson bushfire review suggests that the amount of unmanaged vegetation in Arcadia Park is less than 1ha and therefore there the Park does not represent a fire hazard. But the Park’s Vegetation Management Plan aims to “improve the quality of the native bushland in Arcadia Park by restoring the site to reflect the natural vegetation that historically would have been present on the site”. Arcadia Park is around 1.3 ha and the ongoing revegetation and restoration of Arcadia Park’s wild beauty should not be sacrificed or reduced in size in order to reduce construction costs for the developer. Arcadia Park is a Crown land reserve – it belongs to all of us and it does not exist to enhance developer profits.

We don’t want to stop development that suits our city.

We want to stop this development because its height and bulk are out of character with the attractive landscape features of the natural and built local environment here.

Please write a submission outlining your objection to this inappropriate development of the NBN site.

You only need to write a sentence if your time is limited.

You can reword the suggested points above and submit one or more of them.

Number of objections matter!

Please send your objections to mail@ncc.nsw.gov.au – citing DA2019/00061, Lot 1 DP 204077, 11-17 Mosbri Crescent, The Hill, NSW 2300.

You can read my submission – HERE.

Other information is available at – Open Newcastle.

If you want to donate to our fighting fund to help us assemble the case (expert witnesses etc) for the February court hearing then we have a Chuffed site at – Protect Newcastle Heritage – Protect Arcadia Park.