“Six years wasted and $6.5m already spent of your money on the Lindfield Village Hub with nothing to show.”
It will be years before a shovel hits the ground on the Lindfield Village Hub project and there is still no clear picture of what the design will look like. This is despite Council spending a whopping $6,289,615 (including $690,177 for salaries of Council staff involved in the project) on the project from July 2013 to July 2019 according to documents obtained by Support Lindfield.
Millions were spent in relation to the masterplan unanimously adopted by Council in 2015, before it was abandoned last year. It had a 7-storey height limit and broad community support. It attracted interest from developers, including an unsolicited proposal in May 2018 that was generally in accordance with the masterplan and would have delivered community facilities at the developer’s cost (Council would have to fit out the community facilities), but which was rejected by Council. Since then Council has spent over $3 million on the project.
In August this year, after Support Lindfield vigorously campaigned against proposed height increases to 8, 10 and 14-storeys, Council settled on a 9-storey maximum height plus roof top plant, lift overruns and rooftop communal open space.
Council last month lodged a planning proposal with its planning division to increase the permitted height and floor space ratio in the planning controls, commencing a lengthy process requiring determination by the State Government. Crucially, the revised floor space ratio sought in the planning proposal has not been made public. This process was previously completed for the now defunct 2015 masterplan.
At its meeting on 19 November 2019 Council unanimously agreed to the officers’ proposal to go to tender in December. This risks further cost wastage given the uncertainty on whether the planning controls will be amended to allow the proposed changes to the height limit and floor space ratio.
Mayor Jennifer Anderson (except one year when Cheryl Szatow was Mayor) and General Manager John McKee have presided over this project since the beginning.
The Ku-ring-gai community has every right to question the management of this project; why has it taken so long and cost so much with, so far, little to show for it?
The Support Lindfield Team