Retirement village solution for Sydney’s Bayview Golf Club raises the ire of local residents.

17 Jan 2018

by Darius Oliver

A proposal to convert 2Ha of land at Sydney’s Bayview Golf Club into a three and four-storey retirement complex has angered locals and led to calls for intervention from NSW State Ministers.

The golf club’s partner in the $84 million redevelopment project, Waterbrook, released plans in 2016 showing 95 self-care apartments on the site, situated in seven separate buildings. The land sale would yield the golf club approximately $10 million, and require several holes to be altered and/or moved.

According to the golf club website, $7.2 million was spent on a new clubhouse in 2007 and General Manager David Stone confirmed to the Sydney Morning Herald that it was now in a “fragile financial position” as a result.

The newspaper quotes Stone as saying, "The decision to divert the club's resources to a new clubhouse, in combination with the financial losses the club incurs annually from lost playing days resulting from inclement weather and poor drainage and floor mitigation, has left it in a fragile financial position.”

Stone added that the purpose of the development was to, “provide the resources to do things that a not-for-profit northern beaches, locals golf club could not hope to afford".

But according to this weeks Sydney Morning Herald article, residents near the Northern Beaches golf course are angered over the proposal and what they believe will be adverse impacts on wildlife in the area.

The newspaper quoted Christopher Fletcher, who represents opponents of the development, and noted that, “Apart from a wide variety of flora, there are at least eight species native to the site listed as endangered or vulnerable including the powerful owl, black cockatoo and [a] microbat colony."

Fletcher also told the paper that the area already had enough aged-care facilities, and provides no benefits to the local community, “other than a financial benefit for the private golf club members."

The original retirement village plan at Bayview Golf Club was rejected by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment in 2015 over issues to do with flooding and ecology, but approved in 2016 after changes to the plan including a reduction in the height of apartment complexes.

An online petition has been established by a group against the revised plans, aimed at pressuring the Planning Minister of NSW, Anthony Roberts, to protect the area and its wildlife from further high-rise development.

To read the full SMH article click here

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