Channel 9 Site Update from Bob Taffel of the WAAG Committee

Greetings to all on our Contact List,

On Friday last the Planning Assessment Commission handed down their decision on the Channel 9 Redevelopment Concept Plan. Basically they’ve allowed Channel 9 a maximum of 350 apartments and a maximum building height of eight storeys. All in all a victory for the good guys, i.e. all of us!

It’s too early to know whether Channel 9 will exercise their right of appeal to the L&E Court and it would appear that they have six months to make up their minds about this so we don’t intend to wait this long before we have a little celebration of our success thus far. You’ll hear more of this when we’ve firmed up a date and venue.

Attached are the two documents forming the PAC’s determination. To save you wading through it all, if you go to the document, “Channel 9 Site Concept Plan Approval Conditions” and go to the last page you’ll see the concept plan with the heights of each building noted, a vast improvement over the original proposal. Also buried in the conditions are limits to what can be done with the “Loft” building on the corner of Scott St and Artarmon Rd, “left turn in and left turn out” for traffic entering and leaving the site, no overshadowing of any property, either house or back yard, in Walter St after 9.45am mid winter and a roundabout for the corner of Artarmon Rd and Richmond Av. Many of these and other conditions were part of WCC’s alternate proposal and the PAC has seen fit to include these in its determination.

There are heaps of people we need to thank. All in all it’s a fantastic result for a community that came together and then stuck together for what seemed an age while the machinery of Project Approval ground on. Everyone is to be congratulated but we should all recognise the outstanding efforts of the WAAG committee, led by Peter Wilton and backed by Brendan Bond, Meshlin Khouri and Peter Stephenson. These people gave large amounts of their time and energy into focussing the community on what needed to be done and we owe them a huge vote of thanks. We also must recognise the contribution of Greg Woodhams, WCC’s Director of Planning and his Strategic Planning team of Linda McClure and Lara Nguyen who were the authors of the alternative concept plan that helped us win the day. Thank you, guys. The WAAG group were spurred on in the knowledge that all the WCC Councillors and Officers were with them and in particular, the late Mayor, Pat Reilly, General Manager, Nick Tobin, Councillors Michelle Sloane and Gale Giles-Gidney and both our State and Federal MPs, Gladys Berejiklian and Joe Hockey, thank you, everyone of you, for your support.

Kind regards,

Bob

Channel 9 PAC Concept Plan Approval Conditions

Channel 9 PAC Final Determination Concept Plan