Exhibitions have closed for a pair of controversial Housing Delivery Authority projects, with council-led community campaigns pushing back against applications under the state pathway.

A Conquest proposal at 100 Edinburgh Road in Sydney’s Castlecrag attracted 1299 submissions, including 1053 objections, while VDM Prime’s project at 142-150 Narrow Neck Road, Katoomba, received 767 submissions including 738 objections.

Proponents are now obliged to consider and respond to the objections, many of which raise detailed technical issues with the applications, although planning minister Paul Scully has explicitly said that the HDA pathway “allows existing proposals to receive fast track consideration by being assessed by the state rather than the local council”.