Things you need to know about the new DA for the Alexandria Hotel:

• Floor-to-space ratio massively exceeds Council’s clearly-stated limit of 2.5:1;

• Building height massively exceeds Council’s clearly-stated height limit;

• Building size and bulk, and overshadowing of the heritage-listed Alexandria Hotel;

• Lack of an approved plan to build over the Redfern-Erskineville rail tunnel;

• Lack of approval to access property belonging to the Australian Technology Park;

• Lack of off-street resident parking, and

• Lack of clear waste-management processes.

For more information, visit savethealexpub.tumblr.com.

To object:

To lodge an objection to a Development Application (also known as a DA), you need to write to Council explaining what is wrong with the DA – in your own words. Objections can be as short or as long as you like.

It is acceptable to simply explain how a development is going to make an area less pleasant to live in. (Planners call this ‘amenity’).

The best objections drill into the documents in the Development Application and point out where they are incomplete, or misleading, or plain wrong. All the documents will be online until the close of submissions.

You must respond by the closing date for submissions. You must include your full name and address, the relevant Development Application number and the site address.

For the Alexandria Hotel DA, the closing date is 9 May, the DA number is “Application Number D/2016/374” and the site address is “35 Henderson Road EVELEIGH NSW 2015, 39 Henderson Road EVELEIGH NSW 2015, 33 Garden Street EVELEIGH NSW 2015, 31 Garden Street EVELEIGH NSW 2015”.

You can email your objection to dasubmissions@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au or you can post it to council at “City of Sydney, GPO Box 1591, Sydney NSW 2001″.

There is a list of documents at https://online.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/DA/IndividualApplication?tpklapappl=1246390.

The Statement of Environmental Effects (known as the SoEE) is often good place to start because it contains both the rules the DA will be judged against, and a statement of whether or not the DA complies with each rule. (Sometimes they’re rules, sometimes they’re more like guidelines.) Floor plans and montages can be good for helping you understand what a building is going to look like. Where buildings are close to existing buildings, worth checking the Shadow Diagrams. Practically every document is useful to someone some of the time.

Note that after the close of submissions Council will take these documents down, so always get a copy of everything before then.

When you send your submission, please also email the Councillors – otherwise the objection only goes to Council staff and Councillors don’t get to see your submission – which makes it harder for them to argue for you.

The Councillors’ email addresses are:

• cmoore@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
• idoutney@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
• cforster@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
• jennygreen@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
• rkok@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
• emandla@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
• jmant@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
• lscott@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
• avithoulkas@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

For more information, see http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/development/development-applications/comments-and-objections.

PS. You also have the option to submit your objection via https://www.planningalerts.org.au/. This has the advantage of letting other people see your objection, and lets you see what other people are saying.

Planningalerts.org can also send you email notifications of future DAs near you. This is well worth doing – Council are only required to notify you of a DA if it within 50m – practically nothing. And if you do see something, make sure to talk to your neighbours, or letterbox them, because odds are that otherwise they won’t realise what’s happening until it’s too late to react.