Councillor Chris Harris

I contributed this article to the internal NSW Greens newspaper Green Mail (March 2006) …

The Carlton United Brewery site is about to be redeveloped - will it be an icon of urban renewal or a modern inner city slum?

The Carlton United Brewery (CUB) site is a 5.7 hectare industrial site and the former home of The Kent Brewery but in more recent times it was known as the Carlton & United Brewery. It stands adjacent to the suburb of Chippendale, a short walk from the city.Before the Sydney City Council was elected in 2004, virtually every non-Labor candidate promised that there would be a new process of consultation with the community in order to set planning controls for the site that would be sustainable and in sympathy with neighbouring Chippendale.

After the election I was elected to the Central Sydney Planning Committee (CSPC), which deals with developments over $50M.

The CSPC is a considerable workload because it involves another set of briefings and meetings aside from the council process. It consists of three councillors and four government representatives.

I had hoped that between myself, Clover Moore and Deputy Mayor John McInerney, we could achieve a reasonable set of planning controls over the CUB site. However, this was not to be the case and I resigned from the CSPC in August last year over what I saw as a “sell-out” by Independent councillors on the car-parking ratio, floor space ratio and height controls.

So what happened? An independent study commissioned by the Council recommended a parking ratio of 0.57 spaces per apartment, but the Council representatives on the Committee, the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, and Deputy Lord Mayor, John McInerney supported the current Local Environment Plan allowing a car-parking space ration of 0.97. This translates to an extra 800 cars –a huge environmental impact.

After extensive communication with residents in the area it was clear to me that many wanted an even lower ratio, but 0.57 seemed a realistic compromise since about half the households in Chippendale currently do not own a car, and locals commonly walk, cycle or use public transport.

Several local papers and the Sydney Morning Herald ran the story where I was quoted as saying: “There wouldn’t be another area in Sydney that has better access to public transport.

“It’s a walk to the city and is an ideal site for car-share schemes.”

I quit the committee in protest because the final resolutions broke earlier promises by Clover Moore to The Greens and flew in the face of her public campaign to discourage car use in the city.

I accused the Lord Mayor of dumping the Chippendale community and of siding with the government,the Liberal Party and the developers. I characterised her new Chippendale village as the “vertical village”.

Apart from the parking rate,thei ndependents also accomodated the developer on the floor space ratio (FSR) and height controls as well. The FSR recommended by council staff, following independent studies and a design competition, was 3.5 to 1 but following pressure from the Dept of Planning (read Frank Sartor) all of a sudden it leapt to 4 to 1 (which was always the owner’s preferred rate) and now there is talk of further increases above 4 to 1.

Additionally there are no prescriptive height controls over the site. Height will be determined by sun access planes which will limit the amount of over-shadowing of nearby buildings and the public domain. The only concession agreed to following attempted Green amendments was a height limit of 100 metres across the site not much of a concession.

Clover Moore justified the increases in height and FSR with statements about the need to be mindful of the Government’s $30 million levy on the developer and the developer’s need to recover this cost. I replied that the Greens believe that the Council should focus on sustainable urban planning that benefits the community not the developer’s bottom line.

Should the draft LEP controls and Development Control Plan (DCP) be adopted, development will produce two 100 metre towers, many other buildings as high as 70 metres, 1800 apartments and 1750 cars. All this would be jammed onto a relatively small site.

What’s more, up to 540 of these units could have virtually no sun access and still conform with the LEP requirements that 70% of units have at least two hours of sunlight at the winter solstice. The commumity wins are few - a park, an upgrade to the Pine St Creative Arts Centre and some retention of the industrial heritage - but at what cost?

This would appear to be a lost opportunity to create a liveable and sustainable community and to attract people who do not want to own a car. What we could end up with is an overdeveloped urban slum dominated by motor vehicles.