I am a resident of Silver Street, Marrickville, and am writing to formally object to the proposed apartment development at 107 Silver Street.
I support appropriate housing growth in Marrickville and recognise the importance of providing additional housing close to public transport. However, I believe this proposal represents significant overdevelopment of this particular site and would have an unreasonable impact on the surrounding residential community.
My key concerns are:
* Excessive height — the proposed building is approximately 32.82m, exceeding the underlying 22m height control and, importantly, the 28.6m height available after the full 30% affordable-housing bonus by approximately 4.22m.
* Grossly disproportionate scale — Silver Street, Calvert Street and Silver Lane are predominantly characterised by one- and two-storey houses and terraces. A building of this height and bulk would be completely out of scale with its immediate residential context.
* Excessive visual bulk and dominance — the proposal would fundamentally alter the established character of the neighbourhood, with a large apartment building towering over surrounding homes.
* Significant privacy and overlooking impacts — the elevated apartments would create substantial opportunities for overlooking into neighbouring homes, bedrooms, living areas, rear yards and private open space.
* Insufficient local road capacity — Silver Street, Calvert Street and Silver Lane are constrained residential streets already accommodating residents, parked vehicles, pedestrians and local traffic. A development of this scale will generate significant additional resident, visitor, delivery, servicing and waste-collection traffic.
* Serious construction impacts — as someone who actually lives on Silver Street, I am particularly concerned about how a development of this scale could realistically be constructed while maintaining reasonable access and wellbeing for existing residents.
Even relatively small residential renovations in the street have been incredibly challenging, with construction vehicles, deliveries, materials and trades vehicles creating significant access and parking difficulties.
A major multi-storey development would be on an entirely different scale, requiring cranes, concrete trucks, heavy vehicles, deliveries, waste removal and potentially repeated road occupation. There is a very real risk that Silver Street and surrounding roads would be blocked or severely restricted, potentially for extended periods.
* Resident wellbeing and access — this should not simply be treated as a construction-management issue to resolve after approval. Council should first be satisfied that the development can actually be constructed while maintaining reasonable access to homes, emergency access, pedestrian safety, parking and residential amenity throughout what could be a prolonged construction period.
* TOD policy does not justify maximum development on every site — the strategic objective of increasing housing near transport must still be balanced against the specific characteristics of the site, including local character, privacy, visual bulk, traffic, overshadowing and residential amenity.
I strongly believe additional housing can be accommodated on this site without accepting a development of this scale. A substantially lower building with reduced upper-level bulk, appropriate setbacks and better integration with the surrounding low-rise homes would provide a far more reasonable planning outcome.
I therefore respectfully request that Council refuse the proposal in its current form, or require a substantially reduced and redesigned development.
