The fate of two large Wollongong developments worth almost $100 million is due to be decided by the regional planning authority later this month.
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The Joint Regional Planning Panel will meet on July 30 to deliberate on the University of Wollongong’s new post-graduate accommodation block, and a 30-level hotel and residential tower planned for Regent Street.
Together, the two projects represent $97.9 million of capital investment in Wollongong.
The university complex – which would house more than 260 students – appeared before the panel in May, when members voted to defer the approval until the university further addressed residents concerns about parking and the combined effects of another planned accommodation block for undergraduate students.
Since then, the university has announced it will build another on-campus multistorey car park for residents of the undergraduate building, and has made further commitments to fund a traffic and access plan for Keiraville and Gwynneville.
The student residence to be considered on July 30, to be known as Northfields, would contain 2015 units over six or seven seven storeys and have a capital investment value of more than $31 million.
The hotel, to be known as Regency Towers, was deferred twice by the panel last year due to a disagreement between architects and council planners about its design.
The last time it was considered, in December, the panel deferred the application and ordered applicant David Shalala, designer PRD Architects and planning consultants Cardno to organise a peer review of their plans.
If approved, the building would be Wollongong’s most visible as it would stand more than 85 metres tall atop the city’s highest hill, on the former Charcoal Tavern site at the corner of Regent and Rawson streets.
The $66 million development would incorporate retail, commercial, residential and hotel functions.