The history of the CUB site was largely uneventful until after the last keg
had rolled out the door. Three years ago, the developer Australand optioned the
vacant site from Foster’s. The City of Sydney
council began creating a new planning regime for the site, determined to
tighten up the amount of development allowed. Last December the council
produced draft planning controls which the government-controlled Central Sydney
Planning Committee approved for public exhibition. By then, however, Australand
had decided not to proceed, blaming the tighter development controls.
The council pressed on. By June it thought it was close to an agreement with
Foster’s, when the Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, took over the site at
the request of the Central Sydney Planning Committee. Mr Sartor established an
expert panel to advise on the CUB site. This week the panel met residents, who
gasped at high-rise proposals for the site. However, the panel’s chairman,
Professor Chris Johnson, told residents not to be too alarmed because the panel
had yet to decide just what the density of development should be.
So, after three years, what the council claims was almost a done deal is
back on the drawing board – literally. The minister is rewriting the rules, and
Foster’s is redrawing its plans. This hardly qualifies as progress. The most
contentious issue – density of development – is back under discussion, while
the overall planning framework is also being renegotiated, along with
commitments to community facilities and heritage conservation. The council’s
previous work may be disregarded despite competitions, community forums and
expert consultations yielding a multitude of reports, studies, plans and
guidelines. Nor is it clear what influence, if any, the public will have over
the final planning regime. Mr Sartor’s arbitrary intervention, presumably
supposed to move the project forward, looks more like taking it back to square
one.
SMH Editorial August 19, 2006