A proposal for the construction of a 248-car space extension at the University of Wollongong was approved earlier this week.
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Among the agenda items at Wednesday night’s Wollongong Local Planning Panel meeting was a UOW development application for riparian corridor works, construction of surface carparking and a voluntary planning agreement with council.
The DA proposed the construction of a 248-car space extension to the existing P5 carpark located on the northern side of the main university campus.
The panel approved the DA.
It noted that the reasons for the decision included that the carpark will provide a much-needed facility for the university, and the landscape outcome which included replacement tree planting was satisfactory.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Wollongong City councillors voted to finalise a decade-long agreement with UOW, which will see a controversial synthetic football pitch built at Keiraville’s Kooloobong Oval.
The synthetic pitch – worth about $3.2 million – is part of a $7 million UOW public works plan, which would exempt the university from paying development taxes to the council for the next 10 years.
Other works include $100,000 in funding towards the Botanic Garden masterplan and $500,000 for footpath projects in Keiraville.
The VPA was put on public display earlier this year and generated 56 submissions.
As a result of the feedback, the plan was revised and put back on exhibition; generating a further 120 submissions.
The VPA will require the university to undertake public domain works in Keiraville over the next 10 years, in lieu of paying development contributions.
At Wednesday’s meeting, panel chair Alison McCabe explained that the carpark DA wasn’t purporting to give any endorsement or approval for any of the works that are identified in the schedule to the VPA.
She said any schedule of works or approval requirements for those works in the VPA are “totally separate processes and will require the normal approval processes”.
Ms McCabe said a VPA is typically attached to either a planning proposal or a DA.
“The idea of the VPA was to... Put a schedule of works, stick some money against that, and that would be basically off-set against this DA and future DAs that may or may not occur on the university site,” she said.
“This (item) does not purport in any way, shape or form to agree or approve suggested works on any ovals.”