Developers have dismissed concerns that a planned $200 million expansion of Wollongong Private Hospital will rise three metres above the legal height limits, saying their taller design will provide a better outcome for the new building.
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Ramsay Health developers have lodged their response to submissions made about the expansion, first mooted last year, which will rise nine-storeys high and create a new 24-hour emergency department at the Crown Street hospital.
The private hospital operator has adjusted its plans slightly - redesigning the ED entrance and removing some car spaces - but has argued that concerns raised by Wollongong City Council about height, heritage and design are unjustified.
The company's response says meetings with the council provided "clarifications" address some concerns, but that council planners maintained their objections in regards to heritage and design excellence.
Regarding the building height, the hospital planners provided extra information about the visual impact it would have and says the building complies across most of the site, and is justified within the surrounding landscape.
To reduce the floor space ratio issues raised by the council, the number of car spaces have been reduced by six, to 459, they said.
"Whilst the proposal intends to still provide surplus parking, this has been reduced to 76 surplus spaces," the plan say.
"Parking is a significant issue within this area and the surplus is considered vital for the operations of the hospital. The location is part of the Wollongong CBD health precinct and the proposed FSR is deemed to be entirely appropriate based on the type of development proposed."
Regarding the council's heritage concerns over the demolition of a Federation style house at 366 Crown Street which was once part of a subdivision called Rosemount Estate, the hospital proponents have argued that the heritage status of this has changed, largely due to the construction of their existing private hospital next door.
"The building has limited aesthetic significance at a local level as an altered example of a Federation residence built in the early Interwar period," their heritage response says. "The garden setting and the site's contribution to the streetscape has been permanently eroded by the multi storey hospital building erected immediately adjacent to the residence."
A number of residents from Urunga Parade and elsewhere were also among objectors to the expansion plans, with a number of concerns raised regarding traffic and vehicle access.
In response to this, and feedback fromTransport for NSW and NSW Ambulance the hospital developers made changes to the way the ground floor and lower ground floor entry points will operate, moving or removing some of the panned driveways.
There will now be a dedicated Emergency Department (ED) visitor drop off on the lower ground floor, with a lift to the ED waiting area on the ground floor, their plans say.
The existing internal driveway will be turned into dedicated ambulance access, and the planned ground floor drop off for other patients will be removed.
To go ahead, the "state significant" expansion must be approved by NSW Planning.
Last month, hospital CEO Steven Rajcany said work could start in "a matter of months" with approval.
"If we get the go ahead shortly, it can be completed in the first half of 2025," he said.
"When the development is complete we'll be able to offer local residents a 24 hour emergency department, more than 100 new private inpatient beds, on top of our existing 171 beds, four new state-of-the-art operating theatres and a second cardiac catheterisation labs."
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
