Axe to fall on bid for 2,073 apartments near Menangle Park station

A planning proposal to build 2,073 apartments on a 50 acre site near Menangle Park railway station are set to be rejected and sent back to the applicant to modify.

The proposed number of dwellings represents a potential increase of 500 percent on what is permitted currently, according to a report for for next week’s ordinary meeting of Campbelltown Council.

The report makes it very clear that the bid to build a vertical village made up of eight, six and four storey apartment buildings is too ambitious for the site.

East Village – as the name of the site is called in the application – does have some strategic merit because of its location next to the proposed Menangle Park town centre, and the railway line.

However the sheer scale of the proposed number of apartments, as well as building design and open space and infrastructure shortcomings count against giving rezoning approval, says the report.

And while the site is between 500m and 1000m from the railway station, electric trains cannot use the line from Campbelltown – because it has never been electrified.

Trains do travel from Campbelltown and vice versa, but services are sporadic.

“In the current national housing crisis, and with the proximity to the future Menangle Park town centre, it is considered that there is strategic merit in increasing the density of development relative to the current low density residential zone,’’ says the report.

The report recommends that council, “whilst acknowledging the merit of achieving an increase in the dwelling density yield for the Menangle Park (East Village) precinct, advise the proponent that the proposed dwelling yield of 2,073 dwellings is not supported, and that the proposal does not adequately address infrastructure needs or design excellence outcomes’’.

It is expected that council will also send the proposal back to the proponent to reduce the dwelling yield from 136 per hectare 45, and address the lack of electrified rail, and existing and proposed infrastructure.

This proposal was previously considered by council in November 2022, when it was deferred.