The Ashmore Estate developers are holding two ‘drop in’ sessions at Alexandria Town Hall:

• 5pm – 7pm, Tuesday 4th August
• 10am – 12pm, Saturday 8th August

You’re free to drop in and ask any questions you may have. You don’t need to be there for the whole time.

The sessions are happening now because the developers have lodged the the ‘Stage 1’ Development Application. The Stage 1 DA seeks approval for the overall size, type and general layout. A more detailed Stage 2 Application will be lodged later, dealing with actual building designs, public domain and final design of McPherson Park.

The part of Ashmore covered by this DA is planned to have 9 buildings of up to 9 stories, possibly providing somewhere between 1,477 and 1,630 apartments. Depending on the number of apartments, there might be between 1,186 and 1,293 car parks on site.

This will be the largest single part of the Ashmore Estate. Glo and Motto apartment Buildings are already complete with 252 apartments. The remainder of the Estate will will be developed separately. It will provide perhaps another 1,150 units, making a total of about 3,000 dwellings.

The total increase in population will be somewhere around 6,600 people.

The Traffic and Transport Assessment estimates that this will require “one additional train stopping each hour” and 5 buses. (At this stage there are no planned improvements to public transport, and the government is in fact considering reducing the number of trains that stop at Erskineville.)

The report also proposes making use of the “Road capacity available on Mitchell Road”. (I think this means clearways.) The report notes that WestConnex is coming, but does not discuss its impact on Mitchell Road, except to say that WestConnex “has the potential to alter the main road traffic circulation”.

All DA documents are available here. Submissions are open until the 17th of August. (This may be extended.)

To learn more, come to the next ARAG meeting:

• 7:00pm Wednesday the 12th of August,
• at Alexandria Town Hall, 73 Garden St.