Meriton's Proposal

In September 2019, a Planning Proposal was lodged with Randwick City Council by the Meriton Group for the land known as Little Bay Cove east of Anzac Parade between Cawood Avenue, Solarch Avenue and the Randwick Golf Course. It comprises of 15 Lots and Deposited Plan 270775, with a total site area of approx. 13.5ha. Based on its "Alternative Concept Scheme", submitted to Council in March 2020, Meriton are proposing to

• increase maximum building heights across the site to just under 60m (17 storeys) (currently max. 18m)
• build 1,909 dwellings (vs approved 224 dwellings)
• include a hotel on the prime coastal site (additional permitted use)
• 6,000sqm of retail, medical centres and childcare facilities (additional permitted use).

All planning proposal documents are available for download below.

Both the Randwick Local Planning Panel and Randwick City Council unanimously rejected the proposal in June 2020. Meriton applied to the Department of Planning (DPIE) for rezoning review on 30 April 2020. The DPIE referred the matter to the Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel. 

McGregor Coxall, Hill Thalis Architects and Candalepas Associates Architects developed the current Masterplan for the Little Bay Cove site. Current planning controls allow for the development of 450 dwellings with building heights of mostly up to 12m and on two lots up to 18m; 226 of these dwellings have already been built. 

Located at Little Bay on a contaminated 17ha former brownfields site, the Masterplan provides for a diverse range of housing types on a regular street grid that responds to the coastal topography and environment. The landscaping concept, completed in 2015, features a large central detention pond and wetland system located alongside a public park delivering a fully integrated water sensitive urban design framework. Roads are designed as biostreets filtering water at the pollutant source prior to discharge into the wetland. Existing Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, deposits of Miocene geology and ochre earths of significance to local Aboriginal people have been protected.  

Randwick City Council rejected the Meriton proposal unanimously at the Council Meeting on 23 June 2020. 

RESOLUTION: (Parker/Luxford) that Council does not support the Planning Proposal [...] with respect to the land located at 1406-1408 Anzac Parade, Little Bay, proceeding to Gateway Determination for the following reasons which also follow the advice of the RLPP: 

• The Planning Proposal fails to meet the strategic merit test. The proposal is inconsistent with the Eastern City District Plan and the Local Strategic Planning Statement (LSPS) and there are no changed circumstances which warrant changes to the existing planning controls for the site; 
• The Planning Proposal is inconsistent with Council’s recently endorsed structure plan for future housing growth as set out in the LSPS and Housing Strategy, which does not identify this site for increased yield within the relevant plan-making timeframe. Placing a large proportion of the City’s housing growth onto a single site without the transport infrastructure to support the intensification of use does not align with Council’s structure plan for growth; 
• The TfNSW submission confirmed that a mass transit connection is not committed to by the NSW Government, and therefore there is no certainty that the additional infrastructure will be provided, servicing the site in the short or medium term, and the long term; 
• The Planning Proposal is inconsistent with the Ministerial Directions for Heritage Conservation, Residential Zones, Integrating Land Use and Transport, Development near Regulated Airports and Implementation of A Plan for Growing Sydney (now The Greater Sydney Region Plan – A Metropolis of Three Cities); 
• The Planning Proposal fails to meet the site-specific merit test due to: a. the inconsistency of the bulk, scale and massing of the proposal with the existing and the future use of the area based on the endorsed strategic documents; b. the visual impacts of the proposal on the coastal scenic character of the area; c. the lack of sufficient transport infrastructure to support the intensification of the use and the density of the development; d. the failure to properly consider the new ochre deposit found on the site in 2012; and e. the failure to properly consider the impact of the proposal including the alternative masterplan to the critically endangered Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub and its buffer. 
• The likely adverse environmental effects identified in Council officers’ assessment in regard to density, building heights, massing, view impacts, overshadowing, access and connectivity, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal heritage;  
• The failure to address the issues raised by the Design Excellence Panel in its assessment of the Planning Proposal with regard to the increase in density, building heights and bulk and its incompatibility with surrounding development; 
• The concerns raised by the Heritage Council and Heritage NSW on the Planning Proposal with regard to the impact on the proposed SHR item ‘Little Bay Geological site’, the Aboriginal heritage values of the site, the adjoining SHR items and the inadequate information provided to respond to these key concerns; 
• The Alternative Masterplan documentation is inadequate and lacks information including (but not limited to) maximum building heights (in metres), net and/or actual FSRs and a comprehensive visual impact assessment; 
• The transport analysis used to justify the proposal is based on unrealistic assumptions, including car travel traffic generation rates that are unrealistic and significantly lower than the rates surveyed on the existing site; 
• The Planning Proposal will worsen existing traffic congestion in the road network and will require intersection upgrades to mitigate its traffic impact. The Planning Proposal does not consider who pays for the intersection upgrades, including the physical constraints, potential land acquisition and the legal arrangements that may be necessary; and 
• The proposed yield cannot solely rely on buses for public transportation but rather requires a comprehensive, integrated mass transportation solution. 

MOTION: (Parker/Luxford) CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY  

For audio recordings of the two presentations to the Council Meeting by Meriton and Save Little Bay and the Councillors' debate, follow this link.