Developer shows off Bulli Brickworks plan

An artists impression of the Village Building Company's Bulli brickyards plans.

DEVELOPER put on show revised plans, including the possibility of aged care facilities, for the old Bulli brickyards site on Tuesday night.

The information evening, at the Bulli Uniting Church hall, provided Bulli residents with an opportunity to review and comment on the Village Building Company's (VBC) plans for redevelopment of the Bulli Tile and Brick site before a rezoning application is made with Wollongong City Council.

VBC plans to lodge an application with Council to have the land rezoned from extractive industrial use to mixed use, including residential, commercial and health care facilities.

VBC Chief Executive Bob Winnel said as a result of feedback and public comment the company had made a range of modifications to its original proposal since the first public meeting last year.

Changes included providing employment opportunities, reducing the height and scale of proposed apartment buildings, reducing the number of dwellings from 550 to 450, widening a proposed park by eliminating a planned row of apartments and ensuring traffic access is direct to the Princes Highway and does not pass existing homes.

"We have listened to the community and taken their comments into account," Mr Winnel said.

"We have communicated these changes through a newsletter to the Bulli community, but it is also important to meet people face to face to answer questions and talk through issues."

Mr Winnel said the provision of more employment opportunities was clearly an important issue in the area.

"People have told us that they are concerned at the lack of employment opportunities in the northern suburbs," he said. "Even though Bulli Tile and Brick employed fewer than 40 people when it closed in 2004, people understandably still saw it as a loss of jobs.

"However, our proposal will create at least one hundred more jobs than were lost when the Brickworks closed down. We also anticipate that the project will generate over 200 construction and related jobs per year over 10 years, which will be a huge boost for local people working in the building and building supply trades," he said.

"We are also in serious negotiations with potential operators of an aged care facility on the site, which will provide a significant number of jobs.

"We will also provide more small-scale live/work apartments and home offices, that reflect the changing nature of employment in the 21st century," he said.

"Tertiary sector jobs are more likely to be viable and will be more relevant to the more educated work force now growing up in Wollongong. Once the estate is established its households will also spend millions of dollars annually in the local area helping to generate many more jobs in local shops, schools and services."

Mr Winnel said another important aspect of changes was the decision to restrict the height of the terraced apartment buildings to 2-3 storeys over most of the site, with one section of five storeys located in the north-eastern corner adjacent to the proposed Northern Distributor extension and against the backdrop of earlier excavations. These buildings will not protrude above the land form and will not be an eyesore.

Mr Winnel said Wollongong City Council would conduct further community consultation once the company lodged its rezoning application, but Tuesday's meeting was an opportunity for the community to comment on the revisions to the company's plans before the application was lodged.