Land and Environment Court pushes through for Northmead facility

An 83 place early childhood education and care (ECEC) facility in New South Wales’ Northmead has been given the go ahead by the Land and Environment Court after it was initially rejected by the City of Parramatta.

 

The Council had concerns that the development of the centre was not in the public interest, and that it would have an adverse impact on the surrounding built environment, unacceptable pedestrian safety impacts and fail to provide adequate parking spaces.

 

“The development is considered an overdevelopment of the site as the operation of the facility results in undesirable amenity impacts for adjoining properties, and unacceptable pedestrian safety impacts within the locality,” a Council report notes.

 

Since the report amended plans have been put forward which were sufficient to assure the Land and Environment Court that the development could go ahead. 

 

“The Council has considered the amended plans and additional material provided by the applicant in response to the contentions and is now satisfied that the proposed development is appropriate for a grant of development consent,” a document from the Land and Environment Court said.

 

“The development will have an acceptable impact on the amenity of surrounding properties and the locality in terms of acoustics, privacy and streetscape.”

 

A number of recommendations have also been made to help mitigate noise from impacting the surrounding area, including limiting outdoor play to a maximum of four hours a day, sound barrier walls and moving crying children indoors.

 

The two storey building will occupy two lots, one of which is a residential building currently, and the other of which is vacant land, at 11 and 13 Campbell Street respectively.

 

Plans are for the service to be open from Monday to Friday from 7 am to 6 pm, with 13 staff members to be employed to educate and care for children across four indoor play spaces, three outdoor play areas, a kitchen, laundry, staff room and cot room.

 

A basement level will be built to allow for parking for both staff and families, with ten dedicated staff parks. 

 

Located opposite the Northmead Shopping Village, with the Northmead Creative and Performing Arts High School just 200m east of the site, the service will be built in a busy area of Northmead.

 

For local coverage of this story, as prepared by Parra News please see here.