A massive 262-unit apartment complex could sit on a now vacant corner of the Crown Street and Gladstone Avenue intersection in Wollongong.
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A development application for the 19-storey mixed residential and commercial development has been lodged with Wollongong City Council.
For the building to be approved, council will need to consent to a level of building separation well below the local environment plan.
The site of the proposed complex is the southwestern corner of the intersection, totalling 6566 square metres and taking in the site long-time residents would remember as the former home of Red Rooster.
The developer behind the proposal is Eddy Haddad, also responsible for the proposed tower on the Chicko's site next to the Wollongong Entertainment Centre and the development on the site of the old methadone clinic in Denison Street.
The Gladstone Avenue frontage of the complex would be from the intersection south to the Mantra apartments.
The Crown Street frontage would stretch west from the intersection to the Crownview Apartments.
At ground level there would be 1205 square metres metres of retail space.
Above that would be two 19-storey towers featuring 262 apartments; 63 with one bedroom, 191 two-bedroom units and eight three-bedders.
Parking for parking for 318 cars will be provided across several levels.
The parking space breakdown is 246 residential spaces, 52 visitor spots and 20 for the retail areas with an entry along Parkinson Street at the rear.
The same street will also service parking for a Blaq Projects development featuring 65 units.
A traffic study claims the complex would add another 74 vehicles to the morning peak, and 64 in the evening.
"It is concluded (conservatively) that the development would not adversely impact the existing road network," the study stated.
The council local environment plan requirements mean the complex must have 20 metres of separation between its apartments and the habitable areas of neighbouring buildings.
The development falls well short of this along the boundary with Crownview.
As designed the space is between 11 and 12 metres. It is also one metre shy of the 20-metre requirement at its southern boundary.
A statement has been lodged requesting the 20-metre restriction be waived.
"It is our opinion that compliance with the building separation development standard is unreasonable and unnecessary in the circumstances of this case as the development meets the objectives of that standard and the zone objectives," the variation request stated.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
