Residents Want To Save Woolloomooloo (Again) From ‘Bad’ Riley Street Redevelopment

Residents Want To Save Woolloomooloo (Again) From ‘Bad’ Riley Street Redevelopment
Image: Photo: Supplied

‘Residents Want To Save Woolloomooloo (Again) From ‘Bad’ Redevelopments On Riley Street’ is an opinion piece by Robert Tait.


Woolloomooloo is a Sydney suburb not high on most people’s radar. Sure, it’s got a memorable name, the Old Fitz Hotel, Artspace and Sydney’s (even the world’s) best cake shop in Flour and Stone, but otherwise it’s somewhere to quickly walk through on the way to somewhere else.

Which belies its amazing history, from pre-colonial days as an important fishing and gathering spot, to the building of the Finger Wharf as a major export and arrival point, then to the green bans and triumphant fight to save the suburb from developers in the 1970’s.

Now it looks as if the suburb’s peace and safety are about to be upended again. Developers have been biding their time, but their intent is starting to show, which is higher, bulkier buildings — to the great detriment of current residents, as well as the flavour of Sydney as a whole.

The first such example is on display for public consultation during February, a plan to increase the size of a building in a heritage conservation zone, 47-51 Riley Street, not for new housing but as an office building!

This planning proposal is the first part of a process to allow the doubling of height and floor space ratio for that particular site before a DA is lodged — although it’s not strictly the first part, just the first time the public has been properly aware.

Woolloomooloo
Photos: Supplied.

After negotiations behind closed doors, the City of Sydney made a recommendation to the NSW Planning Department that this planning proposal be adopted (a recommendation which incorporated some highly questionable assertions from the developer), and NSW Planning waved it through.

In many ways 47-51 Riley Street can be seen as a wedge or a test case. City of Sydney has prepared a recommendation for the removal of the heritage conservation zone for significant areas of Woolloomooloo, which is now sitting with the NSW Planning Department, possibly to see how Rose Group’s Riley Street case pans out. And that makes it extra important.

It’s slightly reassuring that this planning proposal has been so bungled by City of Sydney that it could actually fail, which would therefore give pause for thought for redevelopment of the whole of the suburb. City of Sydney Planning Department dismissed out of hand a proposal for 47-51 Riley Street in mid-2023 to raise the height from two storeys to four, saying the build was too high and too bulky.

Roughly a year later they ENDORSED the same plan in an even worse form, with extra storeys added, doubling the height of the current building to twenty-five metres. And this was soon after Council approved a new children’s play space behind it, meaning that that will be eventually boxed in!

The new plan means all the usual for residents who’ve bought their homes on the basis of the heritage conservation zone, specifically loss of light, air and views, as well a serious compromise to the character of their neighbourhood.

There is nothing wrong with appropriate redevelopment, but there is a lot wrong with bad redevelopment. The social housing in Woolloomooloo has not been well-maintained, but there are families who’ve lived there for six generations.

And certainly Woolloomooloo is a perfect spot for more essential worker housing. But to think we could return to the 1970’s, with a goldrush of developers aiming to fill the place with office towers as an adjunct to the CBD, is horrific.

It’s time to fight again, starting with the absurd proposal for 47-51 Riley Street.

You can have your say on the City of Sydney’s website in January, with an information session planned for 11 February 5:30pm, at the ironically-chosen Juanita Nielsen Centre in Woolloomooloo. Bring your popcorn!

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