Blue Mountains City Council has formally endorsed its submission objecting to a 270-apartment development proposal for a site in Katoomba.
The State Significant Development proposal at 142–150 Narrow Neck Road would see the apartments and serviced units spread across nine multi-storey buildings.
Council says the proposal, which also includes a concurrent rezoning and proposed amendment to the Blue Mountains Local Environmental Plan 2015 by the NSW Government, has generated significant concern across the community.
Mayor, Mark Greenhill said Council’s formal objection reflected serious and fundamental concerns about the proposal and the process.
“This is a major development proposal in one of the most environmentally, visually and culturally significant parts of Katoomba,” he said.
“Council has made its position clear: this proposal raises multiple and serious planning concerns and should not proceed in its current form.
“The community was given an unacceptably short period of time to consider and respond to a proposal of this scale and significance.
“Despite that compressed exhibition period, 767 submissions were made, with 738 – or 96 per cent – objecting to the proposal. That is an overwhelming community response and it must not be ignored.”
Mayor Greenhill said the assessment process now placed a significant responsibility on the Department to properly consider Council’s objections and the weight of community concern.
“In other forms of State Significant Development, more than 50 objections would trigger determination by the Independent Planning Commission. This proposal has attracted 738 objections, yet that same safeguard does not apply because of the way residential accommodation was introduced into the SSD framework,” he said.
“That is deeply concerning. The scale of community objection here is well beyond the threshold that would trigger independent determination for other SSD proposals.”
Council’s formal submission sets out its objections to the proposal and will form the basis of Council’s continued advocacy on behalf of the Blue Mountains community.
