Councillor warns 30m higher hotel approval risks 'a return to the bad old days'

Wollongong City Council’s almost unanimous approval this week to approve what will be the largest hotel in Wollongong’s history may well be a game changer for a city struggling to provide enough beds for our interstate and international visitors.

However, Council’s decision to increase the hotel’s height by more than 30 metres, to enable the provision of 434 rooms, has come under fire from independent Ward Two Councillor Andrew Anthony.

To put that into context, the Novotel at North Wollongong, currently the region’s biggest hotel, has 209 rooms.

Council recently changed its planning rules, allowing taller buildings to encourage more hotel development, in a city which has struggled to attract new tourist accommodation investment for the past 20 years.

At Council’s meeting on Monday night, councillors considered a proposal to significantly increase the size and height of the proposed ‘Globe Hotel’ development on the former City Diggers Club and David Jones site in the prominent Crown Street Mall, Church Street and Burelli Street precinct.

The final vote was 11-1 in favour of the larger development proposal. The lone voice in opposition was Cr Anthony, who noted in the report to Council that the increased scale of the building would partially shade “Wollongong city centre’s premier park.”

“I’m disappointed that Council approved the height increase, completely ignoring the concerns of overshadowing of MacCabe Park,” Cr Anthony said.

He told The Illawarra Flame most of the northern side of MacCabe Park, including the youth centre and Nike sculpture, would be in shade for a large part of the day.

During the exhibition period, there were four objections to the project being built at a larger scale, based on the overshadowing of the city’s largest area of green space. “It’s a shame more people didn’t write in to oppose the height increase,” Cr Anthony said.

Council’s business paper said: “The proposal seeks to enable approximately 13,000m2 of commercial office space, 172 room motel and 262 room hotel with a proposed building height of 30m on the Burelli Street frontage, stepping up to 45m and 78.2m (20 storeys, including the ground floor) on the Crown Street frontage.”

Under Council’s current Local Environmental Plan, the maximum height for the site is 48 metres.

Speaking in favour of the upsized hotel project, Greens Cr Kit Docker said more tourism accommodation was crucial if the city was to try to attract more big events to Wollongong.

Labor Cr David Brown, also in support, said any increase in overshadowing would principally impact Council’s own Integral Energy Building on the north-eastern corner of MacCabe Park.

Cr Anthony has expressed his concern that the hotel ruling has preceded a long-awaited master planning process for MacCabe Park.

“We still don’t have a masterplan for the park, so it’s unclear whether the old Integral building will remain in the future,” he said. “The hotel already had approval (under the lower height limit) and does not require the additional height to be viable.

“These height ‘bonuses’ should be applied at Council’s discretion, where they deliver a clear community benefit and result in a genuinely improved development outcome.”

Cr Anthony said he hoped the decision taken by Council this week doesn’t set a dangerous precedent.

“This approach risks a return to the bad old days, when SEPP1 (State Environment Planning Policy) was used to routinely override the Council’s own Local Environmental Plan.”