REBUILT SHELL ON CAPPER / MANN
This ill-fated three story row house in the City Edge development now must presumably be facing demolition as its timber framework. having been exposed to the weather for over a year, is now showing signs of structural damage.
Is this an appropriate symbol for the type of high density redevelopment that City Edge represents?
Probably not, but given the Government’s Bowden Urban Village scheme just now kicking off on the other side of Chief Street, residents will have a clear comparison between the good, the bad, and the unlivable - all within a 5 minute walk.
(The Bowden Development Plan Amendment proposal is available here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/7ft9vgh
It was released without any fanfare on the 16th of this month, and the public can make submissions until the 11th April. Quite a bit of the policy and development control provisions of the Government’s proposal affect the entire City of Charles Sturt Council area, not just the Bowden site. HI understands that Council will consider its own stand on the proposal in middle to late March, although it is not clear at this stage whether this Council submission will be publically available before public consultations are closed. Links to submissions will be posted on Hindmarsh Issues if and/or when they become available)
It’s very clear that the Government is making a serious attempt to demonstrate how urban consolidation can work in its Bowden development, and also that the City Edge development does highlight some of the concerns that need to be addressed.
Just one problematic is that of integrating high density residential infill and existing housing stock. This is much more than an aesthetic question in Brompton and elsewhere. Problems of public and private space – streetscapes, traffic, overshadowing and overlooking, over-maximum site coverages – all abound.
One good example is the conversion of street frontages into utility areas, demonstrated here:
Owing to the variation in heights above street level needed to stop this development from being staggered, the unit’s driveways have to be steep and so ‘colonize’ the footpath – which is further downgraded by the permanent wheelie bin storage. I suspect nobody has worked out how to design workable street frontages which are essentially car and rubbish ports.
