Rozelle’s Rampant Development Woes
Chadi and Adele Tahan have been fighting to save their business. Their pharmacy, on the corner of Victoria Road and Darling Street, has been extensively renovated and is due to reopen in a matter of weeks, but a cloud hangs over it and more than a dozen other businesses located around the busy intersection. Having invested over a million dollars refurbishing the historic building – the second-oldest commercial building in Rozelle – it now stands on the brink of being compulsorily acquired by Sydney Metro and demolished, to make way for the proposed Metro station.
Publicist for the Tahans, Julie Conroy, said there were alternatives to the proposed plan. “Sydney Metro has said to Chadi and Adele they can place the [entry and exit] locations somewhere else, if necessary…but they have chosen not to do that,” she said. “They’ve chosen to proceed with the demolition of local property. They want the local spot for commercial reasons.”
At a meeting with the Tahans a few weeks ago, Balmain Tigers CEO Tim Camiller indicated that the Leagues Club, located on Victoria Road, would be open to the possibility of accommodating the station’s entry and exit points as part of its redevelopment. Mr Camiller said the club had been receptive to approaches from Sydney Metro. “Sydney Metro Authority have approached the club on a number of bases, and we’ve taken the view that it’s better to work with them than ignore them,” he said. “At the moment we’re working with [Leichhardt] Council to put together an application in compliance with the LEP (Land and Environment Planning) amendments.”
He added, however, that Sydney Metro had not put forward any proposal for Tigers to accommodate the entry and exit points for the station, and that as far as he was aware, the authority had no plans to shift the Rozelle station location from the Victoria Road intersection.
A spokesperson for Sydney Metro said the Rozelle station would not be located on the Tigers club site. They indicated that a range of alternatives had been considered, but said, “the current proposal is the preferred option.”
Former Tigers player and board member Ben Elias is currently CEO of Balmain Development Pty Ltd, which is involved in a joint venture with Tigers to redevelop the club’s site on Victoria Road. He said nothing concrete had been established with regard to the station. “If the Metro wanted to work with the Leagues club, we would accommodate them as much as we could, bearing in mind the needs of the community,” he said. “I think the Metro would be a great acquisition for the community.”
Sydney Metro and Tigers Leagues Club are currently proceeding with negotiations which would allow the authority to use part of the Tigers site for construction purposes. This option would involve leasing the site during construction.
However, a suggestion that Tigers had offered the sale of their site to the Sydney Metro Authority for a permanent station site, which was said to have been rejected by Metro after consultation with the State Government, was denied by Mr Camiller. “None of that is accurate,” he said.
A petition from Rozelle businesses objecting to the station’s proposed site location was accepted and noted unanimously at Tuesday’s Leichhardt Council meeting. Deputy Mayor Michele McKenzie said, “The acquisition of these buildings will destroy Rozelle. There is nothing which shows this is a worthwhile project.”
Leichhardt Mayor Jamie Parker said he encouraged Metro to, “look at all possible alternatives.”
Amongst the businesses earmarked for compulsory acquisition and demolition is the Retravision store near the Darling and Victoria Road intersection. The store’s sales manager, David Hunt, said Sydney Metro was looking to progress quickly. “They’ve given an indication they want to serve a writ to acquire the property sometime in August or early September,” he said. “They were eager to get quick results when they negotiated with us…they told me they haven’t investigated any other plans.”
Mr Hunt said he felt the issue had grown beyond a handful of businesses. “I feel if there is to be a Metro, it should be a good Metro – and I don’t think that has been proven at this time,” he said.
A spokesperson for Sydney Metro added the authority was negotiating with the Tigers Leagues Club to purchase a strip of land along Victoria Road for a bus bay. This strip would not form part of the Tigers development application, they said.
