Bronte Village debate not over

Criticism surrounding the redevelopment of Bronte RSL is far from over after Labor and Greens Waverley councillors launched a rescission motion on the matter.

The rescission motion at the March 12 Council meeting was forwarded debating the size of the Bronte Village development, and to correct an alleged ‘administrative error’ in the Local Environment Plan (LEP). Labor and Greens councillors hope to change the recently approved 400 square metres restriction on the development application (DA) to 80 square metres.

Labor Councillor Paula Masselos said the rescission motion was to draw attention to the community’s desire to restrict the size of the development.

“A lot of people are not happy about that and I’m certainly not happy, because it will completely change the tone of the neighbourhood when you’ve got large shops. 400 square metres is large,” she said.

The developers of the site, Winston Langley Burlington, initially wanted 1,000 square metres of retail floor space in the Bronte Village area. This was later reduced to 500 square metres and then decreased to 400 in the first Council meeting in February.

According to Ms Masselos, the majority of the community is against the latest reduction. “I think more than 70 per cent of the community in the consultation said that they wanted the neighborhood centre to remain small and remain as it is. This amendment of [400 square metres] to the Local Environmental Plan is not that,” she said.

Liberal Councillor Angela Burrill, who pushed for the 400 square metres amendment in February, said Council was listening to the community and were considering their concerns in the amendments.

“Over-development of the Bronte RSL site, large scale retail [and] its resulting traffic are significant concerns of local residents, and the new planning controls are designed to address this,” she said.

In addition to the 400 square metres of retail floor space, these new planning controls include restricting deliveries to Macpherson St, height restrictions and introducing public art. Mayor Sally Betts said the rescission movement could make it worse for the community in the long run.

“I am concerned that the rescission by the Labor/Greens councillors prevented Council from lodging the draft controls to the State Government. This created a situation where any development application will be asserted under the ‘old’ controls, which did not limit the retail capacity [and] did not protect residents to the rear by reducing the height,” she said.

“In fact, it allowed deliveries of any size to access the building via Chesterfield Lane.”

Ms Masselos said the risk of having the new controls overlooked was justified by the need for more community debate. “We needed an opportunity to debate this change. It’s not something that the community wants,” she said.