boarding houses Archives – The Hunters Hill Trust

Affordable rental housing

The Hunters Hill Trust fully recognises the need for affordable rental housing in Sydney and we are not opposed to affordable housing being located in the Hunters Hill LGA where the zoning is appropriate. As well, we are not opposed to Boarding Houses being built in Hunters Hill.

However a number of DAs for boarding houses have recently been submitted under the SEPP Affordable Rental Housing as a way of developing sites that would otherwise be too small and unsuitable. We do not accept that this is affordable rental housing because there is nothing either in the LEP definition or in the SEPP to determine a rent cap that might be applied. They will be rented out at the going market rate.

How far have we ‘progressed‘ since these affordable housing options were developed for low income families a couple of hundred years ago?

cottages in Blaise hamlet built in 1811 to house retired servants of Blaise Castle (Image: National Trust UK)

WH Lever built Port Sunlight village for his soap factory workers 1899-1914. 800 houses for 3,500 residents (Image:The Guardian)

There are many reasons why Council should reject the current DA for a boarding house at 2 Flagstaff Street Gladesville, including:

over development of the site
non-compliance with key aspects of the planning controls
location is an increasingly busy shopping area service street and unsuitable for this type of development
lack of alternative emergency exits and potential for disaster if there is a fire
adverse impact on the neighbourhood (not enough car parking, overlooking adjoining property, lack of architectural merit, would prevent potential amalgamation with adjacent sites to allow a more rational re-development of the site).

See the Trust’s detailed submission to […]

admin2018-04-04T13:07:16+11:00April 3, 2018|

Resurgence of boarding houses: why?

NYC boarding house 1943 (Image: Esther Bubley)

There are currently two DAs at Hunters Hill Council for boarding houses in Gladesville and a bunch in Ryde, one of which, at 126 Victoria Road, Gladesville has just been approved by the Land and Environment Court. I have never come across a single application for a boarding house in my local area before.

What’s happening?

Could it be a scam designed to twist the Affordable Rental Housing SEPP for the benefit of developers, allowing them to construct bed sitting rooms with their own kitchens and bathrooms and minimum off-street parking?

The Standard Instrument LEP defines a Boarding House as a building that:

(a) is wholly or partly let in lodgings, and

(b) provides lodgers with a principal place of residence for 3 months or more, and

(c) may have shared facilities, such as a communal living room, bathroom, kitchen or laundry, and

(d) has rooms, some or all of which may have private kitchen and bathroom facilities, that accommodate one or more lodgers,

but does not include backpackers’ accommodation, a group home, hotel or motel accommodation, seniors housing or a serviced apartment.

I don’t see anything about ensuring that the accommodation should be particularly for those on low incomes, for whom boarding houses were originally designed, nor any way that this could be policed. There is a prohibition on strata or community title subdivision of the boarding house in the SEPP, however, I don’t see how the owner of a boarding house would want to build such a place unless they could rent it out at the highest possible rate. Also, as others are finding out across Sydney, the potential for using the units for Airbnb rental is not policed.

admin2018-04-03T13:18:55+11:00March 17, 2018|

Boarding house proposed for narrow site

2 Flagstaff St Gladesville

Hunters Hill Council is currently reviewing a Development Application for the construction of a boarding house that would provide accommodation for 12 people and a manager on a narrow 450 square meter site at 2 Flagstaff Street, Gladesville.

Each person will have accommodation ranging from 15-25 square meters in size. There will be parking for 4 cars.

Check the detailed plans and documents here. Submissions on Flagstaff St boarding house DA 2018 1009 should be sent to council@huntershill.nsw.gov.au by Friday 16th March 2018.

Read the Trust’s detailed submission about 2 Flagstaff Street here.

admin2018-04-03T13:21:18+11:00March 9, 2018|

Preserving Our Heritage since 1968

The Hunters Hill Trust

The Hunters Hill Trust

Preserving Our Heritage since 1968