Sartor should stay out of Chippendale
June 9th, 2006Media Release (Joint release with Sylvia Hale)
Greens spokesperson for planning, Sylvia Hale MLC, and Sydney City Councillor, Chris Harris, have condemned the decision of four government appointees to overrule the three elected members of the Central Sydney Planning Committee and ask Planning Minister Frank Sartor to ‘call in’ the Carlton United Brewery site in Chippendale.
“If the Minister bows to pressure from Fosters to increase the number of units and height of the towers, the impact on Chippendale’s residents will be enormous,” Ms Hale said.
“Not only will Chippendale’s population treble, but the development levies that would usually fund the community facilities needed to provide decent living conditions for residents will be diverted to Redfern/Waterloo.
“This is an exercise in robbing Peter to pay Paul. The government should be providing the funds Redfern/Waterloo so desperately needs, not stripping them from Chippendale.
“Good planning should not result in minimal sunlight, few community facilities and almost no open space. Yet this will be the result if speed and appeasing the developer are the Minister’s dominant concerns.
“The people of Chippendale and of the city of Sydney elected the Council to plan for their future. The Minister should not step in and usurp that role,” said Ms Hale.
Greens City of Sydney Councillor, Chris Harris, says the draft planning controls supported by the Lord Mayor already allow 1800 units, 1750 cars, two towers the height of a football field plus other towers with 20-plus storeys.
“Over 500 of these units could see no sunlight. It is already looking like a slum - how could it be made any worse? It looks like Mr Sartor is willing to give it a try! It is amazing just how much those political donations from developers can buy,” Councillor Harris said.
