Wollongong council opposes 314-room Weerona plan, cites housing target

The paper describes the proposal as one of many high-rise plans lodged in recent months in and around the CBD, where developers have proposed buildings of 30 to 40 storeys. It says the council submission suggests the state planning department should weigh the other projects already approved or in the pipeline when it considers this latest plan.

The council also pushed back on the idea that housing need settles the question. In the paper’s account, the submission said:

“Housing pressure is an important consideration, but it should not be used as a blanket justification for the proposal.”

The Illawarra Mercury adds that, in the submission’s words, the merits still need to be weighed against the impacts, and that the existence of a housing challenge does not automatically validate this specific approach.

The numbers

The Illawarra Mercury reports that the state government-set housing target for Wollongong is 9200 homes. The submission refers to a council report from 2025 which, the paper says, showed half of those dwellings had already been approved.

From that, the submission calculated a remaining balance of about 4600 homes across the whole local government area for 2026 to 2029. It also says the calculations are not precise.

The submission then lists what it counts against the target: 3484 dwellings either approved or under assessment by the department, plus 1855 from the Bellambi housing rezoning, plus development applications that are not state significant. The submission says these are close to the 9200 target. The Illawarra Mercury reads the implication as being that if the city is almost at the finish line, there may be less need to keep running so fast.

The paper’s readable text does not give the submission date, the exhibition close date, or the name of the applicant, so none of those are stated here.

What’s next

The submission suggests the state planning department take other approved and pipeline projects into account. The readable text of the Illawarra Mercury article does not say when a determination is expected.

Whether the department accepts the council’s count of dwellings against the 9200 target, or treats housing pressure as the weightier consideration, has not been reported.

Our earlier report on the lodged Weerona plan sets out the project record. This story relies on the Illawarra Mercury’s reporting of the submission and has not independently reviewed the submission itself.