Dirty development deeds

By Mary Day

WOLLONGONG — Residents of Wollongong are gearing up for another development fight, this time against the "spot" rezoning of a residential area to permit a 12-storey hotel/serviced apartment complex on the Cliff Road foreshore. Several hundred people rallied at the site on February 8 to oppose the development.

Dirty deeds associated with this development include: the bypassing of the planning committee processes of Wollongong City Council; submitting the development application on the night before the council meeting, denying the opportunity for a perusal of documents; tacit approval of the development by the Labor-majority council at the December meeting; the six-week public exhibition of the application running over the January holiday period; not requiring a local environment study; the harassment of a family next to the proposed development to sell their home; and artists sketches accompanying the application not being drawn to scale, thereby misleading the public as to the scale and height of the proposed buildings.

Opponents of the development are calling on people to reject this application for piecemeal rezoning, to register their protest with Wollongong City Council and to immediately call for a local environmental study with full community participation.

From GLW issue 306