Our vision for Blackwattle Bay would see new public open space equivalent to one-and-a-half football fields and a foreshore promenade that will complete the 15-kilometre continuous harbourside walk from Woolloomooloo to Rozelle Bay.
City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore said the proposed redevelopment appeared to be a Trojan Horse for large apartment towers designed not with people in mind, but maximum developer profits.
Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes said the area would include new public space.Credit:Infrastructure NSW
This is already a densely-populated area, with limited space any new development should be sensitive and prioritise employment growth. Instead, we have large towers built adjacent to eight-lanes of free-flowing traffic, with such bulk and scale right up to the foreshore as to recast the whole area as an imposing shadowland.
Cr Moore said the towers would even overshadow the future Fish Markets solar panel roof.
Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said most Sydneysiders would be speechless at the height of the buildings and urged the government to go back to the drawing board.
The plans are ignorant to the needs of a global city. They fail to address the urgent need for social and affordable housing, and the need for public open space. What this seeks to do is privatise our harbour foreshore.
Pyrmont Action residents group convenor Elizabeth Elenius said the group had consistently opposed the height of the towers, which she said would have a humungous impact and create a wall of high-rise buildings.
Wed be happy for it to be developed at an intermediate scale between the CBD and Glebe, we dont want to see it as an extension of the CBD.
She hoped residents would be involved at an early stage with design and planning for the public recreation area.
If we get to do that, we can turn our gaze away from the towers, like I do with [James] Packers phallic monstrosity, Ms Elenius said, referring to the Crown Sydney tower complex at nearby Barangaroo.
The plans are on public exhibition until August 6.
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