No Lewisham Towers

WHEN: 8pm Thursday 19 November 2009

WHERE: Summer Hill Community Centre, 131 Smith St, Summer Hill

WHAT: See Marrickville Council’s draft master plan for the McGill Street Lewisham precinct (site of the proposed Lewisham Towers).

• Local resident, Greg Frith will take you through Council’s draft master plan. Time will then be available for the local community to express their opinions.
• Local Councillors from Marrickville and Ashfield Councils will be available to hear your points of view and answer your questions.
• The draft master plan forms an alternative vision to the Lewisham Towers proposal of a supermarket mall and 14 storey apartment towers. It is important for the local community to engage in the process and express their opinion.
• This is also your chance to support the NO LEWISHAM TOWERS residents action group by joining up and making a donation.

You can view a copy of the plans here.

Map to community meeting venue:

View Larger Map

This week’s Glebe reports on the motions before Marrickville Council’s June meeting.

MARRICKVILLE Council will not support the No Lewisham Towers campaign despite Ashfield and Leichhardt councils showing their support.

Last Tuesday, Marrickville Greens councillor Max Phillips moved a motion calling for the Planning Minister to refer the plan back to the council.

Residents are concerned that community consultation will be limited if the proposal is assessed as a part 3A application. The motion also called for Marrickville Council to clearly state its opposition by writing to local, state and federal members and promoting http://www.nolewishamtowers.org on the council’s website.

The motion was tied. Labor Mayor Sam Iskandar used his casting vote to defeat the motion, saying that community consultation would happen.

“The fact is, you like it or not, there is a law and you have to abide by laws,” he said, referring to part 3A.

Independent councillor Dimitrios Thanos raised concerns about community consultation.

“The community has a lot more weight here than when they go down to the planning minister,” he said.

Cr Phillips’ other motion calling for a masterplan of the McGill St precinct which covers the Lewisham towers site was passed unanimously. This means the planning minister “shall give consideration” to the masterplan when assessing the proposal.

Should Marrickville Council have supported the motion?

• Yes
• No

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Council has commissioned a different vision for Lewisham

Two motions about the Lewisham Towers development went before Marrickville Council on Tuesday night.

The first motion was to have Marrickville Council commission a master plan for the entire precinct between Old Canterbury Road and the Goods Line in Lewisham.  A master plan will provide an alternative vision for the urban renewal of the area, with appropriate height and density limits to complement the surrounding community, as well as provision for open space and traffic management.

The second motion confirmed Marrickville Councils official opposition to the Lewisham Towers development, called for it to be assessed by Council rather than by the Minister for Planning under Part 3A, and wrote to local MPs requesting their support for this position.  A similar motion had been voted down by a combination of Labor and Independent Councillors in March.

Unfortunately, it was a busy council meeting, including the budget, and the motions were not debated until 10.30pm!  Despite the hour, residents of Lewisham were present in the gallery and two residents spoke to the motions.

The motion for a master plan was supported unanimously. Labor and Independent Councillor Victor Macri moved amendments to the motion.  These were incorporated as part of the motion.

This is excellent news and council staff have already started to put it into action.  There will hopefully be scope for community input into the master plan project.

The second motion was tied 6 – 6  (5 Greens & Ind. Thanos for the motion  –   4 Labor & Ind. Hanna & Macri against). Labor Mayor Sam Iskandar used his casting vote to defeat the motion.

You can view the minutes from this meeting here.

Thank you to all the residents who attended and spoke at the meeting.

The McGill Street Precinct, Lewisham


View McGill Street Precinct in a larger map

15 Jun 09  by Sam Worrad

The campaign against the 14-storey Lewisham towers development on Old Canterbury Rd continues to gain momentum, though Marrickville Labor claims it is at the centre of a scare campaign.

Labor councillor Mary O’Sullivan said the Greens were “doing their best to portray local and state Labor as beholden to developer donations, but it is not true”.

“We are as critical as anybody of the proposal because it is singularly inappropriate for the area, and where we differ is how the proposal should be assessed,” she said.

Marrickville Labor Mayor Sam Iskandar agreed scare tactics had been used.

“It is wrong to say that there is a monster coming and that it is inevitable,” he said.

“I will say again, we don’t support it and we never supported it.”

At tonight’s Marrickville Council meeting, the Greens will move two motions – one calling for the council to commission a master plan for the precinct between Old Canterbury Rd and the goods railway line in Lewisham and a second motion calling for the development to be assessed by the council and not the Planning Minister.

The second motion was voted down by a combination of Labor and independent councillors in March.

“If the councillors are listening to the community and know the depth of feeling about this issue, I would hope the motions can get through,” Greens councillor Max Phillips said.

There has been more than 650 hits on the http://www.nolewishamtowers.org website, where Marrickville’s Greens and Independent councillors Dimitrios Thanos and Morris Hanna have registered their opposition to the towers.

Read this story on the Inner West Courier’s website.

Marrickville Council will vote on two motions relating to the Lewisham Towers development at tonight’s Council meeting.

The first motion expresses Marrickville Council’s opposition to the Lewisham Towers development and the use of Part 3A to bypass the Council and have it assessed by the state government.

The second motion calls for a master plan of the Lewisham precinct to ensure that an alternative vision is prepared for the area and that it be incorporated into the review of Marrickville’s Local Environment Plan (master zoning and development controls).

It would be great for supporters of the campaign to come to the Council meeting it is at 6.30pm, today (Tuesday 16 June) at Marrickville Council Chambers, 2 Fisher Street Petersham.    See Map.  If you would like to address the Council on these motions, you can apply here.