Landmark Group returns to Edgecliff with scaled-back 180-unit tower

Landmark Group’s bid to redevelop 8-10 New Mclean Street, Edgecliff, is back in the NSW planning system as a State Significant Development application, SSD-151814003. The NSW Planning Portal lists the project’s current status as Prepare SEARs, the stage where the scope of the environmental assessment is set before any exhibition or merit assessment begins.

The portal’s own record describes a single residential tower of 18 storeys with 180 units, including an affordable housing component, over a basement carpark. That is smaller than the scheme apartments.com.au described when it first reported the application, which put the proposal at two towers up to 18 storeys and around 246 apartments.

The site sits beside Edgecliff railway station and bus interchange in Woollahra, according to apartments.com.au’s reporting, which also detailed the proposal’s planning history. Landmark’s path to the State Significant pathway follows a unanimous council refusal of an earlier, larger version of the project. Woollahra Council knocked back a 25-storey tower of 256 apartments with 2,000 sqm of commercial space, reported by apartments.com.au as a poor fit with the council’s own plans for the area.

That rejection, reported by apartments.com.au, also cited a reduction in the proposal’s affordable housing contribution and unresolved traffic concerns as reasons for the refusal. Landmark has since returned with a State Significant Development application to the NSW Government, rather than a fresh local proposal to Woollahra Council.

Why it matters

Woollahra Council has already rejected one version of this scheme, and apartments.com.au described Landmark as the latest developer to take an Edgecliff project to the NSW Government. Landmark’s decision to lodge a State Significant Development application, rather than go back to the council, means the revised scheme will be assessed through the state process rather than by the council that refused the earlier version.

The numbers

The current Planning Portal record sets the project at 180 units across 18 storeys, down from the 256 apartments across 25 storeys that Woollahra Council rejected in the earlier version of the scheme.

What’s next

The application remains at the SEARs stage, before the scope of the environmental impact statement Landmark must prepare has been set. No exhibition period has opened and no decision has been made on SSD-151814003.