Save Thirroul Village Media Release: Thursday, 3 December 2020
The fight isn’t over but after seven months of campaigning, community consultation and significant personal investment, the local Thirroul community have come out on top in stage one of the controversial Thirroul plaza redevelopment, according to the Save Thirroul Village group, founded by Louise Wellington and Stephen Le Bas.
In a letter (attached) from Wollongong Council to the developer on 27 November 2020, Wollongong City Council planning officers have recommended to the developer that they consider withdrawing their Development Application (DA) due to a range of significant unresolved issues covering:
- Opposition from Transport for NSW – RMS
- Concerns and non-compliance issues from the Wollongong Design Review Panel
- Stormwater/Flooding
- Environmental Matters
- Traffic
- Heritage
- Planning Matters
Council have said there will likely need to be "substantial changes to the design" before any approval is recommended, and have suggested the Developer withdraw the DA now to enable these matters to be properly addressed prior to resubmitting a new application, or they risk the Council recommending a refusal to the Southern Regional Planning Panel, who are the determining body of the development application.
This is great news for the Save Thirroul Village campaign, who have worked tirelessly for seven months and continue to oppose the development based on a number of outstanding issues that the Developer has refused to address, all of which align with the same issues brought up by Council:
- Safety and congestion
- Unsympathetic design to the Thirroul Village Character
- Removal of street parking
- Stormwater issues
- Poor compliance with the Wollongong Development Control Plan
- Prejudicing the ongoing operation of local music venues (Anita’s Theatre and The Beaches Hotel)
- Compromising the viability of retail premises on Lawrence Hargrave Drive (LHD) due to loss of street parking
- Impacts on outdoor dining due to loss of ‘parking buffer' on LHD, and many more
The developer is now considering their options from here. As we understand it, they can either take on board the Council’s recommendation to withdraw the DA. Or continue with the current DA, and take their chances with the Regional Planning Panel. More details are in the attached Status letter from Wollongong City Council.
Save Thirroul Village is a forum for community members to discuss issues that may affect the nature of our village, including development applications, planning proposals, and any other issues that may be of interest to the Thirroul community. The group is not an anti-development forum, it supports appropriate and sympathetic development of Thirroul and the Norther Illawarra suburbs. The group was set-up to assist the community in preparing their objections to the first Thirroul Plaza. A closed Facebook group was established in June this year and quickly grew to over 900 members. A public Facebook page and Instagram presence was established and these too have attracted a large following.
The engagement with the community regarding the Thirroul Plaza DA has prompted a record number of objections to DA-2020/363, signalling the community’s opposition to poorly considered and inappropriate development within Thirroul.
