North Sydney Seniors Living Tower Knocked Back

Retire Australia’s plan to replace an historic aged-care facility with a vertical seniors housing development on Sydney’s Lower North Shore have been rejected. 

It was refused by the Sydney North Planning Panel, which listed floor-space ratio issues, amenity, site access, parking, pedestrian safety, tree canopy and the impact on a heritage-listed sandstone wall along Burns Bay Road as reasons for the refusal.

Almost 100 submissions were made about the Lane Cove development, which has a cost of $51.25 million.

Retire Australia said it would review the reasons for refusal and consider its options.

“We are disappointed the Sydney North Planning Panel did not support our development application for 40A Cope Street, Lane Cove, in its current form,” a spokesperson said.

“Retire Australia presented a well-considered design that reflects improvement to the character of the local area and would deliver a significant increase in high-quality seniors housing to enable more local residents to remain within their local community as they age.”

Retire Australia planned to demolish the former Caroline Chisholm Retirement Village, which included 52 aged-care beds across seven buildings.

Building on the site dates back more than 100 years—the wall on Burns Bay Road was built in the 1920s and the property turned into an aged-care home in 1967. It was named after Caroline Chisholm, a 19th-century English humanitarian known mostly for her support of immigrant female and family welfare in Australia.

The former home would have been replaced by two buildings of four and six storeys, comprising 52 independent living apartments and associated facilities as well as 54 carparking spaces. The proposed project had 6921sq m total gross floor area across the 4996sq m site, which is just south of Lane Cove West Shopping Centre.

▲ Pictures of Caroline Chisholm Retirement Village when it was sold in 2017.

The liquidated property was bought by privately owned Retire Australia, a retirement village owner, operators and developer, as vacant possession in 2017 with the intention of redeveloping it into a retirement village to fill a “a clear market gap” in the area.

That year, pre-lodgement meetings were held between the council and project team of Jackson Teece Architects, Tim Shelley Planning and Bill Clydesdale of Retire Australia.

▲ The heritage stone wall outside Retire Australia’s proposed project at Lane Cove, Sydney.

Plans to build 93 homes across two buildings were penned in 2019 and the latest application was made in late 2022.

Retire Australia has the option to appeal against the decision with the Land and Environment Court within the next six months.