‘Really bad planning’: Wendy Whiteley joins the fight against Sydney high-rise apartments

2 hours ago 2

Art scene grand dame Wendy Whiteley has joined residents fighting plans to build nearly 1000 apartments in towers up to 30 storeys overlooking the bay on Sydney Harbour where she created her renowned “secret garden”.

As the NSW government pushes to boost housing supply, locals in Lavender Bay are protesting against four large proposals they claim will loom over the tiny harbourside enclave, encroach on privacy, block sunlight, strain infrastructure and impinge on the character of a community that includes Whiteley’s state heritage-listed garden.

Wendy Whiteley created the public harbourside garden beneath her Lavender Bay house to help face the morass of grief she felt after the death of her husband, the famed artist Brett Whiteley, and later the couple’s daughter, Arkie.

The projects have been identified as state-significant developments by the Housing Delivery Authority, which was established to bypass local councils and fast-track new homes.

The state government faces an uphill battle to meet its target to build 377,000 homes by mid-2029.

Whiteley moved to the suburb with her late husband, artist Brett Whiteley, in 1969, and spent years turning a once-derelict junkyard next to her house into a lush public garden. She acknowledged the nearby North Sydney central business district “has always been there”, but said the “rapacious” rush to develop more high-rise blocks was “short-sighted” and “really bad planning”.

“Lavender Bay was always magical. The other side of that is it has been a magnet for developers, it started the minute we arrived,” she said.

“It’s been a constant battle.”

The proposals at the edge of the business district, which is densely populated with tall buildings, include replacing two office blocks near North Sydney train station with hundreds of apartments.

Under the plans, the 18-storey Fujitsu building on Blue Street would be knocked down for a 30-storey block with shops and 200 units.

The nearby 14-storey Zurich building would be demolished to make way for a 29-storey mixed-use development with 400 apartments, 195 of which would be co-living rooms.

Below the station, buildings around St Francis Xavier Church on Mackenzie Street would be razed and redeveloped with three blocks up to 20 storeys, with 186 apartments including 50 so-called “affordable housing” dwellings.

There are also plans to raze several low-rise brick apartment blocks on the corner of Lavender and Middlemiss streets, close to the Bradfield Highway, and build 140 apartments in three buildings of up to 20 storeys. About 3 per cent of dwellings would be affordable housing.

Clare Loewenthal is among locals who have formed Residents Opposing Lavender Bay Overdevelopment (ROLBO) to argue that buildings up to 70 metres tall would cause a “devastating loss” of sunlight and privacy, and be at odds with the character of the Heritage Conservation Area.

“You can’t put huge towers of 20 storeys next to these tiny little workers’ cottages and terraces, and think it’s not going to have a huge impact. It’s the whole character of Lavender Bay that’s at risk,” Loewenthal said.

Clare Loewenthal is worried about the development plans. “It’s one of the oldest areas in Sydney, and I think we have a duty to future generations to preserve those,” she says.

“What we are saying as a community is that we want it to be appropriate, and we want it to fit in with what’s already here.”

Loewenthal said residents were also concerned about the potential loss of two social housing blocks for the Lavender Street development.

“People may feel we’re just elitists sitting here as NIMBYs saying we don’t want development, but we’re not,” she said. “We’re a really diverse community … we have a social cohesion that can’t be replicated in huge, big towers. None of us wants to lose that.”

If approved, the four proposals would deliver a combined 926 homes. North Sydney Council has a target to deliver 5900 new dwellings by mid-2029.

North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker said the council was urging the state government to ensure the three projects near the station were “considered collectively and cumulatively” and had a precinct plan.

She said this would help protect sensitive heritage areas and public open space, and ensure the delivery of public benefits, such as through-site links.

The council is also worried that converting office blocks to residential buildings would undermine North Sydney’s employment zone.

“To deal with each of these projects in isolation we’re likely to end up with much worse impacts than if they were dealt with collectively,” Baker said.

Planning Institute of Australia national policy manager John Brockhoff said councils had typically prioritised precinct planning, but the urgency of the housing shortage had shifted those priorities.

“The government has the prerogative to take firm action on housing approvals and use a special entity like the HDA,” Brockhoff said.

The government wants to build more housing near train stations; critics say the blocks will overshadow parks and gardens.

“But when they do that, they need to plan not just for the here and now, but for the long-term, and not just for the one site, but for the sites next door and the entire precinct.”

A Planning Department spokesman said the HDA did not limit councils’ ability to conduct strategic planning.

The towers would be built on three sites close to North Sydney station, which sits on a hill overlooking Lavender Bay.

All proposals had to demonstrate enabling infrastructure, and would undergo a merit assessment that included public exhibition and consultation with councils “to ensure high-quality outcomes”.

“The department uses internal planning expertise, state-led strategic work and council plans and design and infrastructure standards to enable coordinated outcomes for developments in close proximity to each other,” he said.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.