Anglicare hosted a public consultation session on Saturday, after unveiling a much-revised version of its 12-year-old plan for the Sandon Point project. 

The site includes the former Cookson Plibrico warehouses and a green parcel of land, bordered by Wilkies Street, Geraghty Street and Tramway Creek, with the Sandon Point Aboriginal Tent Embassy its eastern neighbour. 

Once a purely aged care and retirement development, the new concept shows the northern portion – about half the 8.1-hectare site, including the plum “ocean view precinct”  – now set aside for standard townhouses. 

Urban planners Ethos Urban, acting for Anglicare, explained the revision in a December, 2017 letter to the Department of Planning and Environment.

“The concept plan was approved in December 2006. Since that time Anglicare has reviewed the market for seniors housing in the Bulli area. Their research has revealed that there has been a constant supply of new seniors housing in the locality which has decreased the demand for this type of housing. Anglicare is therefore proposing to replace the seniors housing with standard residential accommodation to better reflect market demand.”

The original approved concept plan allowed for an aged care home with up to 120 beds (four storeys) and a retirement village with up to 250 apartments (three storeys). 

The revised concept shows a residential aged care home with 68 beds, 130 retirement village apartments and 57 private townhouses with 111 car spaces. 

It is this – the cars and the increased traffic the development represents – that has piqued the interest of early commentators. 

In a leaflet letterbox-dropped to residents ahead of Saturday’s consultation session, Angicare said it would retain a key aspect of its 2006 plan – the north-south access over Tramway Creek for pedestrians and cars, via Geraghty Street.

McCauley’s Estate resident Greg Wall was among those to attend Saturday’s consultation session at Thirroul Community Centre.

He said he was awaiting further detail of the plan, so he could see where the additional traffic would flow.  

“We’ve all invested a lot of money into the area to have a nice area, open space. Not too much traffic. Now the traffic is going to be a big concern,” he said. 

“We don’t want anything like Brickworks Estate (at Bulli), where cars are parked on either side of the road, and you cannot get a car through the middle. 

“I don’t know how the council approved that, because if you’ve got a car either side, you can’t get a fire truck or an ambulance through, and they’ve got a duty of care.” 

Anglicare is expected to submit its application to the Department of Planning and Environment next month.