Battle for Lewisham heats up as opponents highlight ‘bottleneck effect’
With final public submissions due early in the new year, opponents to the Lewisham Towers development have stepped up their campaign, arguing residents in neighbouring suburbs will feel the effects of what they describe as “gross overdevelopment”.
An independent traffic study regarding the impact of the development, commissioned by Marrickville Council, is currently being completed. But Marrickville Greens councillor Max Phillips stressed a completed traffic survey was not required to realise congestion was already a problem – one which would be made worse with the addition of 400 apartments, a 6,000 square metre supermarket mall, and basement parking.
“Everyone who drives through that area knows it’s already choc-a-bloc full of traffic,” he said. “It’s already heavily congested at intersections such as Railway Parade and Old Canterbury Road, and West Street and Railway Parade. Even the developer’s submission shows that some of those intersections are on the verge of failure and won’t work.”
The project’s critics say it is not just intersections in the immediate vicinity which will be affected. “It’s going to create a big bottleneck effect, down Parramatta Road,” Cr Phillips said.
The project has also been criticised on numerous other grounds, in particular concern that if approval is granted it will set a precedent for other developers to increase the size of future developments.
David Melocco, from the residents’ group ‘No Lewisham Towers’, said there was a need for development in the area, but not the type being proposed. “There is no need for more retail outlets in the area and the Towers will threaten local shops such as the Summer Hill shopping centre,” he said. “There is no real argument in their proposal as to why they should have the retail centre… it’s unnecessary and unwarranted retail.”
Marrickville Council has outlined a need for more residential development in the area, but not of the size and density proposed by the Towers’ developers, Demian Constructions. The Floor Space Ratio of Council’s proposal is 1.7 to 1, while the developer’s proposal is slated at 3.5 to 1.
Public submissions to the Department of Planning close January 7.
by Kate Horowitz
