120-bed aged care facility planned for brickyards

A 120-bed aged care facility is to be incorporated into the latest plans for the former Bulli Brickyards site after employment opportunities emerged as the major issue at the developer's community feedback evening last Tuesday.

Village Building Company (VBC) has revealed a proposal from an aged care facility operator for the facility on the controversial site.

Chief Executive Bob Winnel said as a result of strong support for aged care provisions during the information evening, a facility would be incorporated into plans for the site.

Once approved and constructed, the facility will cater for local residents and will create approximately 55 full-time jobs or part-time equivalents, he said.

This would be in addition to around 140 jobs in ground floor commercial spaces and in a health and well-being centre.

Mr Winnel said the new development would generate around 200 tertiary sector jobs compared to the 40 secondary industry jobs on the site prior to closure of Bulli Tile and Brick.

VBC now plans to review feedback forms from the information evening and lodge the revised rezoning documentation with Wollongong City Council.

The VBC hopes to now have the site rezoned from extractive industrial use to mixed use, including residential, commercial and health care facilities.

Around 120 people attended the information evening, discussing issues including employment opportunities, traffic, the number of dwellings, building heights and drainage. Company representatives explained the VBC proposal for the site, and the changes that have been made to the masterplan since the first community feedback session in April 2005. Changes also included modifications to accommodate the RTA's plans for extension of the Northern Distributor.

"Since the community feedback at the first information night last year, the company not only incorporated substantially more employment opportunities, but has also reduced the height and scale of proposed apartment buildings, reduced the number of dwellings from 550 to 450, widened a proposed park by eliminating a planned row of apartments and revised the road layout to ensure that all traffic access is direct to the Princes Highway so that not one vehicle from the new development would pass any existing adjacent home," Mr Winnel said.

"We will then seek Council's approval to this mixed-use development including the ability of people to have offices located within their apartments. Our proposals for commercial spaces on the ground floor, for a health and well-being centre and for a 120 bed Aged care facility, reflect the changing nature of employment and the changing nature of the northern suburbs of Wollongong in the 21st century," he said.

Opponents of the redevelopment proposal on the site say changes announced by the Village Building Company (VBC) are merely window dressing for the wrong development.

Community group Bulli Village Voice (BVV) spokesperson Richard Robinson saidhe development proposal put forward by the VBC would degrade the lifestyle of residents and would add stress on local services and infrastructure.

"Bulli has almost lost its entire stock of employment land in recent times and the remaining sites are under threat from economically damaging developments," Mr Robinson said.

"The proposed high density residential development of the former Bulli brickworks site will only add to the traffic on the F6 and the crush on the trains to Sydney."