Newsletter 47 – Tall Buildings

We need to plan for North Sydney’s future.

Let’s talk about tall buildings.

North Sydney hosts more than 100 buildings with more than 12 storeys.

The community has over time had the need to provide amenities the cost for which were beyond its capacity to pay. One funding device was to allow developers to build buildings taller than usually permitted in return for covering the cost of a community benefit.

• To set time (when there was no radio and no internet).
  • An example – in 1895 by adding a seven-story clock tower to North Sydney’s post office to greet and inform people travelling along the Pacific Highway.
• To put in place low-cost housing.
  • An example – in 1954 (Greenway) by making apartments affordable by spreading the land cost over 309 apartments.
• To beautify streetscapes by adding open green space.
  • An example – in 1957 (the MLC building on Miller Street) with part of the site set aside for a park and pedestrian plaza.

Think about it, each of these, the North Sydney Post Office, Greenway apartments and the MLC building has heritage significance.

The point is that the worth of a building should be considered both in the light of the amenity it delivers to the community and design/artistic merit – inclusions of plazas and setbacks from the edge of the street should become a minimum requirement.

Being tall is not inherently bad ..

…. so let’s have discussion about how to drive great outcomes for North Sydney rather than just oppose all things that are tall.

For further reading – North Sydney Sun

Let me know your thoughts on how Council should manage planning issues going forward – imutton@crafers.com