Councillor Chris Harris

Residents of City North are up in arms about government plans for East Darling Harbour, AKA The Hungry Mile or ‘Barangaroo’ as it is to be called.

“Kent Street residents are angry that the Concept Plan exhibited late last year seemed to have taken a course of steroids as many of the buildings had become larger and taller than those shown in the Design Competition winning entry,” said Chris Harris.

“This means many residents would lose much of their western views and afternoon winter sun.”

Tall buildings on the southern end of the precinct particularly appear to flout the guidelines of the Central Sydney Plan which sensibly calls for a stepping down of building heights from the central ridgeline to the waterfront.

“Plonking a new line of skyscrapers next to the water causes other problems, too, both shutting off the city from the sea breezes while increasing wind pressure in the newly created canyons below,” said Harris.

Another serious problem is transport integration with the city.

“The Concept Plan appears to have been created in a vacuum,” said Harris.

“There is no provision for transport upgrades external to the site so the rest of us would have to cope with a possible10,000 extra vehicle trips per day.

“Kent Street is already congested at peak times and that will be the only traffic exit from East Darling Harbour to the Bridge.

“On top of that, thousands of pedestrians will have to negotiate a maze of obstacles to reach Wynyard Station twice a day, funnelling through the already congested Kent Street tunnel.

“I doubt that either the tunnel or Wynyard Station itself can cope with the extra 4,000 passengers the new precinct is likely to generate each day,” said Harris.

“Yet at the same time the government rejects the sensible answer to this - an integrated light rail system.

“They should be calling it ‘Sartor Heights’ or ‘Developers Paradise’,” quipped Chris.

“At least people would remember the name then!”

“Seriously though, this is Sydney’s last chance to get its urban design right and the Iemma Government needs to have another look at the real needs of the city instead of pandering to their developer mates.”