Fears proposed residential tower will ‘obliterate’ Tweed neighbourhood’s amenity and charm

By Margaret Dekker

A proposed 104-unit ‘monolithic’ development in the heart of old Tweed Heads is already proving devastating for local residents before it’s even built.
Retired electrical designer Dennis Stevenson, whose balcony would end up only 12 metres west of the proposed development, said the 13-storey/40 metre high building with a span of 55 metres along 7-13 Pearl Street – complete with rooftop entertaining, a swimming pool and gym – is the wrong bulk and scale for the area.
“It’s like a glassy Ayres Rock. We didn’t expect the size of what’s happening,” Dennis Stevenson said.
Mr Stevenson believes the proposal by Sydney developers, First Capital Finance Group, will be problematic from the start. He estimates excavation work alone will require deep removal of more than 20,000 cubic metres of soil for an intended 2 level basement underground carpark and an additional 2 levels of car parks up into the sloping site.
“Pearl Street will just be a disaster during the construction period. We’re talking 2000-2500 truckloads probably every 15-minutes, over 3 months plus, just to excavate the site,” Dennis Stevenson said.
Concerns have also been raised regarding the impact on an adjacent 20-unit building in Thomson Street, and potential structural threat. The excavation encroaches to less than 1 metre of the property boundary at a depth of 15 metres, and there’s no talk of compensation if there is resultant structural failure.
Dennis Stevenson also questioned the myriad consequences of such a big build on a narrow street. It is only 9 metres-wide for 2 lanes of parking and 2 lanes of traffic. As a minimum, a CBD road (as this development is presented) requires a minimum of 3.5 metre-wide lanes resulting in a road width of 14 metres.
“It’s such an impractical type development for this area, it is just not suitable, architecturally it’s wrong, the size is wrong, the parking is wrong, the road size is wrong, the amenity in the area is affected by it, we’ve got a school close by and a church close by that will be affected as well,” Dennis Stevenson said as he also raised the possible need for a major sewage upgrade, to service an estimated 250 new residents.
From his elevated apartment in the adjacent Bay Breeze building, there’s uninterrupted outlook, North, East and South.
“Shadowing, yes we’ll virtually lose most of our sunlight in the morning and that’s the only sunlight we really get,” he said.
And then there’s the potential loss of ‘that view.’
“Of course, everyone in the building doesn’t want it. We have a magnificent view at present, it will not be completely destroyed as we will maintain the views towards the South, but for some on lower floors in the building, many of them retired, it will be completely devastating.”
“This doesn’t architecturally fit the theme of the area, this thing should be on the beachfront or riverfront, somewhere like that, but not in the middle of suburbia,” Dennis Stevenson added.
Unfortunately for residents of Bay Breeze apartments – two of whom have since listed their homes for sale – the site is zoned R3 Medium Density Residential with Tweed Shire Council, making it ripe for development, especially in a white-hot Tweed property market.
Due to its $33 million estimated build cost, the development’s final approval now rests with the state Northern Regional Planning Panel.
With a long career in construction, including on big projects like Jupiters Casino and Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast, Dennis Stevenson is currently poring over the proposed building’s plans with a fine-tooth comb, certain of errors in statements relating to neighbour character, density, built form, aesthetics and potential construction over an easement.
“They’ve actually taken a report from a Sydney-based project and left in references to Elizabeth Street and Castlereagh Street inside the middle of the reports, that’s how slack the submission is,
“How can these submission reports be considered as factual when there are so many issues apparent in the conclusions presented? It would be interesting to find out if any of the consultants used to present these reports have in fact been to the site as part of their commission?” Dennis Stevenson asked.
The NRPP is currently taking public submissions until November 1 about the development referred to only as ‘Tweed Heads’ by architect Tony Owen Partners.
“A lot of the feedback I’ve been getting is that this development should be more across the border up in Broadbeach or somewhere like that, it’s not the style of development that Tweed Heads needs to have as part of its character,” Dennis Stevenson said.