A hand-written plea to the council sums up a barrage of objections to a proposed boarding house for up to 100 lodgers near the South Village development at Kirrawee.
“Please give us a break,” wrote the “45-year resident of the shire”, whose name was blanked out. “We have had enough development (eg brick pit) in our area.”
The boarding house, with 50 rooms for lodgers, is proposed on a triangular shaped block at 168 Oak Road, on the southern side of Kirrawee train station and rail bridge.
On the other side of the proposed development site is a medical practice in a heritage-listed building at the corner of Oak Road and President Avenue.
The proposed boarding house in in an R2 low density residential area about 200 metres from South Village, where the shopping centre opened in November and the first residents are about to move in.
The state government announced in November, after the DA was lodged, that boarding houses in R2 zones would be limited to 12 rooms.
The development application (DA) is for two buildings – one double storey, the other single level – containing 50 boarding rooms, manager’s unit and communal area.
There would be 26 basement and at-grade car parking spaces, plus parking for 10 motorcycles and 10 bicycles.
A single storey brick house and rear swimming pool occupies the site at present.
More than 30 submissions objecting to the plans highlighted existing “overdevelopment” and traffic and parking problems in the area.
A range of other issues were also raised, including the safety of children and “the potential for social conflict with 100 residents in mostly small shared rooms averaging 16 square metres in size in close proximity to each other”.
The Sutherland Shire Environment Centre said it would prevent the implementation of the Sutherland to Cronulla cycle-pedestrian link along the rail corridor between Kirrawee and Gymea.
The safe off-road shared path was “critical for addressing the rapid increase in traffic congestion due to high density development because it will directly link suburbs, schools, entertainment, shopping centres, hospitals and sporting venues”, the centre said.
“Stage 1 from Sutherland to Kirrawee has already been announced.
“Stage 2 will continue from Kirrawee to Cronulla and is particularly urgent with the completion of South Village which will add 2,000 new residents to the area.”
Residents in another part of Kirrawee, on the other side of President Avenue, are fighting another boarding house development.
A DA has been lodged for 16- room boarding house in Best Crescent, which is also zoned R2.
Objections include the development would be out of character with the surrounding area, traffic and car parking, privacy, “overdevelopment” and public safety and crime concerns.
“The area is presently low density residential dwellings, mainly families or long term and elderly residents or both,” said one resident, who said there were at least 10 young children in the immediate area.
