Towering Chatswood Scheme Waved Ahead

A 35-storey mixed-use tower 12 times taller than its neighbours has been waved ahead at Chatswood.

The scheme approved by the NSW Government for the site at 5-9 Gordon Avenue replaces an earlier proposal on the site.

That proposal in 2023 sought 64 apartments in a 25-storey tower with a $61-million price tag, but changes to the Housing SEPP allowed the developer to put forward a new and larger design.

A total of 91 apartments, including 22 affordable, will sit above a two-level podium with commercial and retail space, with a cost of works of $103.2 million for developer LFD. Community housing provider Link Wentworth will manage the affordable housing component.

The 1522sq m site, surrounded by lowrise residential buildings, will yield 11,863sq m gross floor area. Additional height to 117m (above local limits of 90m) and floor space ratio of 7.8:1 (against the local limit of 6:1) was permitted, in line with the infill affordable housing component of the project.

The site in the Willoughby LGA on Sydney’s Lower North Shore is less than 100m from the Pacific Highway and 450m from the Chatswood Transport Interchange.

Objections were put forward by the public, council and the Chatswood Bowls Club and Croquet Club. Submissions argued that the project, at 12 times the height of surrounding buildings, was out of character with the area. Both the inadequacy and over-provision of the proposed 121 parking spaces were suggested.

▲ Rendering of the approved tower. While the approved height will mean the project looms over the neighbourhood, other proposed towers nearby may join it.

The determination in LFD’s favour is not the only approval in the area without council support. In August, Billbergia got the tick for a 28-storey dual-tower project at 2-8 Wilson Street, 849-859 Pacific Highway and O’Brien Street. That approval came via the Land and Environment Court.

Other difficult projects in the suburb continue to make headway, including the Vakili family’s $311-million twin tower proposal. That project was refiled as an SSD after an earlier design on the site at 38-42 Anderson Street, 3 McIntosh Street and 2 Day Street was shot down in 2021.

A 32-storey, $107-million Develotek tower proposal, at a site also adjoining the Chatswood Bowls Club and Croquet Club, is before the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure. An earlier proposal for 27 storeys won in the Land and Environment Court after council rejected it in 2023.

A 32-storey Changfa project, a 46-storey Capitel Group tower above a shopping centre, and a 27-storey Novus tower (approved by the Independent Planning Commission in July over council objections) are among others looking to reshape the Chatswood skyline.