THE old Windsor Fire Station will be turned into a 19-room boarding house for the elderly, to be run by Anglicare.
The boarding house will provide affordable accommodation for its 19 tenants according to Anglicare, which will run it under its Anglicare Housing Assistance Program.
Hawkesbury Council approved the development, located at 19 Fitzgerald Street, Windsor, at the November 28 meeting.
Councillors were split on whether to allow the development, with the vote ending up 6-6.
However, the Mayor Mary Lyons-Buckett was one of the six councillors who voted against the proposal, but used her casting vote to approve it.
Mayor Lyons-Buckett said there was a need for this type of accommodation in the Hawkesbury, but said she privately had concerns about the development.
“I fully support the increase in housing opportunities within the Hawkesbury...I understand the need for this type of housing and because I believe there would be benefits for some of our more vulnerable people,” she told the Gazette.
“Whereas I did not feel it was the best proposal it could have been, balancing up the proposal with the needs in the community I supported it.”
The DA to turn the old fire station into the boarding house originally came before Council in May, but was deferred.
At the time, the DA was submitted with only two car parking spaces, which fell short of the number required by the State Environmental Planning Policy.
After its deferral, Anglicare resubmitted a proposal, this time with four spaces, which was still short of the number required.
Anglicare’s Peter Paltoo told Council that it was not possible to have any more than four parking spaces.
“It comes down to striking a balance and looking at the entire package. The most amount of parking we can put on that project we can to make it a viable project is four spaces,” he said.
They Mayor added part of her decision to vote against the proposal was that she did not think enough had been done to fix the concerns councillors held in May.
“I did not feel that those concerns had been adequately altered from last time although there has been a minor increase in parking,” she told the Gazette.
Cr Rasmussen said parking in Windsor was no trivial matter, however, Anglicare representatives said that residents would not be allowed to have a car and would not cause more parking headaches in the area.
Liberal councillor Patrick Conolly said parking spaces should not hold the development back.
“If someone is that desperate that they are willing to give up a car to have a place to live, what does that tell you about them,” he said.
Greens councillor Danielle Wheeler said she did not like the fact there would not be an on-site manager.
If a site has 20 tenants then an on-site manager is required.
Mr Paltoo said Anglicare had several sites across Sydney, some with managers and some with not, and this site had not been deliberately designed to fall just short of the required number to have a manager.
“We're not an organisation that builds things to a minimum to generate the maximum return,” he said.
Deputy Mayor Barry Calvert said he supported the project.
“In our city and all of western Sydney, homelessness is a growing problem, especially among older women,” he said.
“I don't think we can ignore that problem and turn people away because they are one parking space short. To me that would be a heartless way to proceed.”
Deputy Mayor Calvert, Cr Richards, Cr Tree, Cr Conolly, Cr Kotlash and Cr Reynolds voted for the motion. Mayor Lyons-Buckett’s casting vote carried it.
Mayor Lyons-Buckett, Cr Ross, Cr Rasmussen, Cr Garrow, Cr Wheeler and Cr Zamprogno voted against the motion.
Mayor Lyons-Buckett and Cr Garrow declared less than significant non-pecuniary conflicts of interest because they knew people who lived next door.
