Developcorp lodges 42-apartment plan in Lindfield heritage area
The application, filed under reference eDA0358/26, draws on height and floor-space uplifts from Ku-ring-gai's transport-oriented development rezoning, which lifted Wolseley Road's limit from 9.5 metres to 29 metres despite its heritage listing.
Developcorp has lodged a development application for a 42-apartment building across three amalgamated lots at 28-32 Wolseley Road, Lindfield, filed with Ku-ring-gai Council on 6 July 2026 as eDA0358/26. The scheme would replace three houses on the 2,675 square metre site with an eight-storey building by Smith and Tzannes, inside a heritage conservation area. For North Shore developers, it is an early test of whether transport-oriented height controls survive a heritage assessment.
Why it matters
The site was swept into Ku-ring-gai’s transport-oriented development rezoning with the rest of Wolseley Road, despite its conservation-area status. That rezoning lifted the height limit from 9.5 metres to 29 metres and the floor-space ratio from 0.3:1 to 1.8:1, The Urban Developer reported. On a 2,675 square metre site, that sixfold change moves the allowable floor space from about 800 square metres to about 4,800.
Developcorp’s own heritage consultant, Weir Phillips Heritage, acknowledged that demolition would remove contributory fabric and diminish the area’s character, according to the same report. It had assessed all three houses as substantially intact from the street. Because the rezoning covered the conservation area, that tension now falls to individual applications like this one.
The application is lodged, not determined. It is not yet clear whether council staff or the Sydney North Planning Panel will decide it.
The numbers
The 42 apartments comprise one one-bedroom, five two-bedroom, 35 three-bedroom and one four-bedroom apartment, The Urban Developer reported. The building would reach 25.76 metres, about 3.2 metres under the new 29-metre limit, and carries a floor-space ratio of 1.8:1 before bonuses. Eight affordable apartments, six three-bedroom and two two-bedroom, cover 583 square metres. That bonus lifts the ratio to 2.13:1, just under the 2.16:1 available. Those eight apartments would be held for at least 15 years under management by a registered community housing provider.
The council record describes the works as demolition of existing structures and construction of a residential flat building with associated works. It flags the site as a heritage conservation area under the State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021. The plans were submitted through the NSW Planning Portal on 30 June, The Urban Developer reported, with the council recording lodgement six days later.
The scheme includes 87 car spaces and 47 bicycle spaces in a shared basement, plus 708 square metres of communal open space across the site. The applicant is Wolseley 888 Pty Ltd, which Developcorp founder Johnny Daher incorporated and wholly owns, per the same report.
What’s next
The public record lists eDA0358/26 with Ku-ring-gai Council, with no determination published. The assessment will weigh the Weir Phillips findings against the transport-oriented controls that now apply along the whole of Wolseley Road. Any objections from residents of the conservation area, and the council’s own assessment of the heritage impact Weir Phillips Heritage identified, will need to be resolved before the application can be determined one way or the other.
Until that assessment is complete, the 42-apartment, eight-storey description reflects what Developcorp has proposed, not what the council has approved. The rezoning that makes the scheme possible on paper does not pre-empt the heritage test the individual application still has to pass.