The developer proposing to build a nearly 120 metre skyscraper in the Wollongong CBD has kept plans for the tallest tower unchanged, despite Wollongong City Council and community submissions taking issue with the height and bulk of the proposed development.
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The response are part of a package of refinements included in an updated development application for the $400 million WIN Grand development, released on Wednesday after community submissions were gathered last year.
While buildings on the corner of Burelli and Keira streets have been scaled back and the proposed cinema moved underground, the tallest tower on the corner of Atchison and Burelli Street has been largely unaltered.
The updated DA is the latest step in the transformation of an entire city block in Wollongong CBD, bordered by Crown, Keira, Burelli and Atchison streets.
The tallest tower remains 117.6 metres tall, despite comments from Wollongong City Council that the tower would be "overly imposing and dominant".
Project manager Steve Turner said that alternative building shapes and formats were considered in response to feedback.
"It's already quite a slender residential building and we did do an exercise in shifting that tower around and looking at making it narrower or a bit longer and those were all seen to be lesser outcomes," he said.
"At the end of the day, we think we've got the original design right."
Community responses to the original plans brought up the loss of views from the Avante building at 3 Rawson Street. The response from the developer states that the proposed building would mostly block areas "that have no visual significance".
Most of the changes have occurred in the south-eastern corner of the block which was above height limits. The revised plan reduces the height of the smallest tower by three floors and adds these floors to tower two, which fronts Burelli Street to the west.
Podium mass has been reduced and an apartment on level five removed to lessen visual bulk and increase communal space.
The changes eliminate shadowing on MacCabe Park during midwinter and decrease the total number of apartments by 12.
Other changes to the apartment buildings also increase the spacing between buildings to comply with local environmental plans and design guidelines.
New plans for the commercial buildings on the corner of Keira and Crown streets frontage increase the amount of floor space available and reposition the cinema from on top of the Grand Hotel to underneath the commercial building, reducing the height of the building on the corner of Keira and Burelli streets.
The new commercial building would allow for flexible set ups, including co-working spaces, while responding to the need for commercial office space in the Wollongong CBD, said Mr Turner.
"We think that there's a real market for not just single tenants but providing an environment with smaller businesses that want to work in the city centre, in a high quality building, and in an absolute prime spot," he said.
Other variations focus on the public amenity of the site. These include increasing the width of footpaths on Burelli Street and adding a public lift to improve accessibility at the western end of Crown Street. Level changes have also been minimised and provision made for a north facing public plaza.
Parking has also been increased to 496 spaces, including 15 for those with a disability.
Some submissions raised the lack of affordable housing, which the development is not required to provide, but Mr Turner said the development would instead add to the community by creating public amenities in the city centre.
"The development is burdened, if you like, by trying to provide a whole lot of amenity for the city centre, and the balancing of that is to provide a significant amount of residential [units]," he said.
"We are providing a significant public benefit, in terms of the facilities like publicly accessible pools and health and wellness precincts, and leisure and entertainment facilities. Almost 40 per cent of the ground floor area is publicly accessible space."
In a statement, the developers said that it would be the first carbon neutral precinct with accessible facilities and benefits for all ages.
"Following the public exhibition period, WIN Corporation looks forward to a timely decision to enable the transformation of the city centre to begin in earnest," the statement said.
The plans are now on public exhibition for another 30 days, before the plans are resubmitted to planning authorities.
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