Hillsong's $78m development off key

THE Hillsong Church is in an uproar after its $78 million development application in Rosebery was rejected by an independent planning assessment commissioned by the Sydney City Council.

The Hillsong church has lodged a proposal to build a seven-level office building and a 2,700 seat church with 679 car parking spaces in Rosebery.

The Central Sydney Planning Committee, which determines development applications in the City of Sydney valued at more than $50 million, will meet on July 03 to consider the matter.

According to the independent assessment by Angelini Planning Services – commissioned by the City of Sydney – the proposal exceeded height, parking and floor space limits and would exacerbate traffic problems in the surrounding residential streets.

The report found the proposed development is one of medium intensity commercial development of a height and scale that does not match the predominant building form in the locality.

There were objections to both the proposed 33.3 metre tall office block and 17.9 metre tall auditorium, which exceed the maximum building height of 12 metres. Although an existing former RTA office on the site currently exceeds the height limit, the report said that replacing one anomaly with a similar anomaly on the same block of land is questionable from an urban design point of view.

The report also found the floor space ratio for the development of 1.62:1 exceeded the maximum allowable ratio of 1.5:1.

Meanwhile the independent planner examined six different traffic management assessments commissioned by Hillsong, City of Sydney and Rosebery residents.

“A high intensity Church use will generate significant traffic movements and demand for parking during periods (weekends in particular) that are generally associated with a reduction in traffic movements and parking demand.

“It is not considered acceptable on planning grounds to effectively duplicate week day peak traffic volumes for significant periods of the weekend in close proximity to residential land uses,” the report said.

A report by MWT in May 2008 commissioned by City of Sydney found the traffic generation for the site will be 428 vehicles per hour during the weekday AM peak, 530 vehicles during the PM peak and 1350 per hour for the Sunday services peak.

“It is generally accepted by all [six separate] reports that: The use of the auditorium component of the proposed development will generate additional traffic on the local and wider road systems when used for church services,” the report said.

According to the Council, more than 1092 individual submissions were received including 276 objections and 816 letters and emails of support. Petitions for and against the proposal were also received.

Objectors were concerned about traffic and parking issues, noise and amenity loss while submissions in support said Hillsong would create social benefits for the area and the proposal included a large 5,667 sqm publicly accessible park.

Australian Property Journal