A north shore church is a step closer to being transformed into a multi-storey development as faith lobby groups push for more religious sites to be given high-rise futures to meet Sydney’s housing prayers.
The Sydney North Planning Panel has given the green light for the St Andrew’s Anglican Church in the heart of the Lane Cove town centre to be turned into an eight-storey building with a redeveloped church, 48 units, a community facility and a 150-space car park.
The Lane Cove church has been given the green light for a $80 million redevelopment.
The approval of the $80 million development comes after the proposal was met with a baptism of backlash when residents and community groups raised alarms over potential traffic impacts, noise and loss of heritage.
Resident Carolyn Levin, who lives next to the 102-year-old site, said the noise and public disturbance from people using the community facility late at night and trying to get home “will be terrible”.
“The scale and nature of the development are simply not in harmony with the existing character of our neighbourhood [and will] bring about challenges and disruptions that we are not prepared to accommodate,” resident Lisa Stramand wrote in another submission to Lane Cove Council.
Not all residents were opposed. Lane Cove Youth Orchestra president Lyndall McNally said the proposal would address a shortage of performance space in the community.
A concept image of the Lane Cove church redevelopment
The panel’s approval comes just weeks after Faith Housing Australia, which advocates on behalf of faith organisations, urged the NSW government to relax zoning rules to enable more housing to be added to church sites.
The body identified 747 faith-owned sites within 800 metres of train stations across NSW that could be redeveloped for up to 20,000 homes if the current SP2 place of public worship zoning definitions were relaxed.
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