Seniors Housing & Healthcare Trends

LOS ANGELES: A council will be urged to support a community protest push against a proposed $220m retirement complex for over 60s at Narrabeen.

The council will be asked, at its monthly meeting on Tuesday, to lobby the state government to allow a public hearing into the premium 149-unit Indigo by Moran development opposite the beach.

And if the notice of motion submitted by independent Narrabeen Ward councillor Vincent De Luca was successful, the government would also be prodded to let the Independent Planning Commission, rather than NSW Planning, review the development.

The motion also calls on the council to ask for another 28-day period be granted to lodge public submission due to strong community interest in the project.

NSW Planning received 746 submissions during the 13-day exhibition period that ended on November 5.

High-end retirement living firm, Retirement by Moran, has lodged a State Significant Development application for the village with the government, which means the approval is taken out of the council’s hands.

A community action group has formed to fight the redevelopment of the former Wesley Mission’s pensioners accommodation facility on Ocean St.

Residents are arguing that the proposal — with five-storey blocks topped by rooftop terraces — is a massive overdevelopment of the site that will “dominate” the suburb, block views, change the character of the neighbourhood and choke backstreets with traffic.

The Better Planning for Northern Beaches group spokeswoman, Hannah Dennis, fears the Indigo project will set a precedent for more non-compliant overdevelopments on the northern beaches.

But Retirement by Moran said it would help meet a huge demand on the northern beaches for seniors living.

Managing director Sally Taylor said more than 600 parties had already registered interest in buying a unit.

Indigo by Moran would also have two carparking spaces for each unit and provide 10 aged care beds.

“Retirees don’t want to move away from their friends and family,” Ms Taylor said. “They want to stay in their own community, but they want to downsize and live independently.”

Cr De Luca said, ahead of the council meeting, that he had received more than 100 emails and messages from locals concerned at the development and complaining the online submission portal was down for about three days.

He said the application should go before the Independent Planning Commission so a public hearing could be scheduled.

“It would be appropriate for the council to write to the Planning Minister in support of the concerns raised by residents and request that he use his discretion to delegate the application to the Independent Planning Commission for determination.

“It means residents, and other interested parties, can actually address the panel instead of having a decision being made by faceless people.”

Cr De Luca also noted that the state government did not name Narrabeen as one of the nine locations on the northern beaches for its Low to Mid-rise Housing policy that allows medium to high-density residential development near town centres and transport hubs.

“So why is it trying to get a 6-storey development through the back door?”