The proposal is to increase the height of the towers from 12 to the 18 storeys allowed under RWA’s Built Environment Plan and turn the bulk of the site into 162 residential units with retail at street level. They also propose five levels of commercial space that would allow the Police to continue to operate from the building. The current plans do not address police car issues around the building.
Currently the basement is inaccessible for parking and a car lift is being considered from the pedestrian concourse near the RSL to allow 22 car spaces within the building. Concerns have been raised about the lift location in a high pedestrian area. The building owners have an additional 88 parking spaces being built as part of the redevelopment of the old car park behind the RSL building, which would be available to new residential occupants.
There is significant interest in the development from the community following leafleting for the meeting with 20 comments being received prior to the meeting. Concerns raised so far include the impacts on surrounding buildings, resident and visitor parking and how the building design could affect the existing wind tunnel.
While the plans are not yet finalised it is proposed to significantly rework the skin and layout of the existing buildings to create a new façade around the current structure rather than just build additional storeys on to what is currently there. Graphics and preliminary plans for the proposal can be found under “1 Lawson Square Redfern” on the Planning NSW Major Projects website.
