BuyingNothing oversized cooking at Goodman's Sydney Metters site, as Planning Minister agrees with council Nothing oversized cooking at Goodman's Sydney Metters site, as Planning Minister agrees with council
The Goodman Group's hopes for quick approval for its inner-city Sydney residential high-rise development site have been further dashed, with the site failing to get through the first stage of state government fast-tracking approval initiative.
It had been among the 43 properties nominated by landowners seeking special consideration by the NSW Department of Planning.
Goodman failure to secure the amber light this week from the Planning Minister Brad Hazzard was ontop of earlier bad news when the department determined to limit the site to nine storeys, down from the 19 storeys granted by the former Labor state government.
The site is a nondescript Erskineville industrial estate set on Mitchell Road between Erskineville Oval and Sydney Park.
Lord mayor
“Our planning controls, developed after thorough research and community consultation, limit Ashmore’s buildings to nine storeys or less, and deliver new streets, bike lanes, a small supermarket and 15,000 square metres of open space.
“I was extremely concerned about how the increased height and density approved by the previous government would impact the area, and the process by which the changes were made.
“The City did the work to show how those changes would affect residents, including increased traffic, loss of regional views and significant overshadowing.”
“We organised a public meeting on Ashmore and consequently received more than 500 public submissions complaining about these impacts.”
“Ministers Hazzard and Berejiklian have also responded to community concerns about parking and traffic impacts by agreeing to increase public transport for the Ashmore precinct as development proceeds and residents move in," Moore says.
The site was once headquarters of the Metters factory, producing ovens and boilers. Its best-known brand was the 1930s Kooka range of gas cooking appliances. The Metters factory site dates to 1906, when the firm, established on Rundle Street in Adelaide in 1891 by Frederick Metters, moved from its small factory on Alice Street at Newtown. Metters stayed there until the early 1970s, about the time it was taken over by Email.
It had an $81 million book value as at June, with the site's tenants including Toll Priority and Ausdoc.
The entire Ashmore precinct has been identified for urban renewal since 1998, with Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore recently suggesting the city’s second largest industrial area offered a rare opportunity to create a sustainable new neighbourhood.
"We want to create a neighbourhood which includes the right infrastructure and sustainable design to improve the lives of current and future residents," Moore says.
She says the City of Sydney has been working with the community on the future redevelopment plans.
Under the latest state government initiative, some 31 sites face further review on the basis of government-endorsed objectives by the review committee, chaired by the Director-General of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
