An expert panel guiding the site’s development says
statewide planning controls for solar access should be relaxed because of its
“highly urbanised location” on the edge of the city.
That would mean up to 40 per cent of units in some blocks
would only get sunlight between noon and 2pm in mid-winter, as would the
5000-square-metre park at the rear of the site and many terraces and offices in
Chippendale.
But the panel’s chairman, the former government architect
Chris Johnson, says the amount of sunlight is better than many city apartments
receive. The site’s owner, Poster’s, will reveal its plan for the site next
month, which is expected to be largely in line with the panel’s
recommendations.
The panel’s report was delivered to the Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, yesterday before its public release
today. Mr Sartor appointed the experts when he seized planning control of the
$1 billion development in June.
Chippendale residents and the City of Sydney Council now fear the minister will
allow taller apartment blocks on the 5.8-hectare site than the council was
prepared to accept, describing the potential result as a “mini-Manhattan
on steroids”.
The panel’s report will fuel those concerns, recommending
that two skyscrapers be allowed at the north-east of the site, opposite the 110
metre-high brown tower of the University
of Technology, Sydney. One would be up to 36 storeys, or 110
metres – 10 metres higher than allowed by the council – with the other about 95
metres high. Buildings to the south and west of the towers would be up to 45
metres, while those along Abercrombie
Street would be up to 25 metres.
But Professor Johnson said the recommended height limits
struck the right balance between the need for a high-density development near
Central Station and the scale of Chippendale. “The site is a classic
missing piece in the jigsaw [of Sydney
development] I guess, whereby the character of each side of this missing piece
are all quite different,” he told the Herald. “We have been
professional in understanding we need to get a reasonable amount of development
on this site. It’s a critical urban site.”
The panel’s report recommends demolishing at least four
buildings of heritage significance – in part to make way for a four-lane road.
Buildings around the brewery yard would be adapted to demonstrate how the brewery
operated in its heyday.
“We have got to make a trade-off here [between heritage
and development’,” Professor Johnson said.