Aussie community fights back against billionaire’s plan
Meriton CEO Harry Triguboff has proposed building 2,000 apartments in Little Bay Cove.
A community in the southeast of Sydney is fighting back against one of Australia’s richest people who plans to build thousands of high-rise apartments in the area.
The Little Bay community, around 17km south of the Sydney CBD, has pushed back against a proposal that would see close to 2,000 Meriton apartments being built in the area.
Meriton founder Harry Triguboff has proposed to build 1,909 apartments on a 12.3 hectare site at Little Bay after purchasing the land for around $250 million in 2018.
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Originally, the site came with an approved plan to build 450 dwellings up to five storeys high, but Meriton submitted a rezoning plan to the Randwick City Council to build 1,909 apartments in 22 storey high buildings.
However, that plan was thwarted by the Randwick Council by the Mayor Danny Said saying at the time it was “seriously flawed”.
Fast forward to 2021 and Meriton sought a review for the proposal, which was then also rejected by the Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel who slammed the proposal as “too big, too bulky and out of character with the surrounding area”.
Community hopeful
Community action group Save Little Bay has rallied thousands of locals in the hopes to see the last of the massive development project.
“The Meriton proposal is uniquely unsuitable for the Little Bay Cove site and has no strategic merit,” the group said.
“Little Bay's local character is shaped by its unique coastal environment, rich recreational opportunities and a low- to medium density built environment with building heights of up to 18m.
“Meriton's proposed high-rise development with proposed residential towers of up to 60m high is blatantly out of place.”
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