After James Packer announced plans in 2012 for a second Sydney casino at Barangaroo, the backlash was swift. Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore led the charge, criticising it as a "clumsy Dubai-style hotel with a new mega-casino right in the middle of Barangaroo Central".
Moore and others were horrified at the prospect of Packer's proposed new hotel and casino resort encroaching on that part of the harbourside development exclusively reserved for cultural and community use. The prospect spurred former prime minister and ex-design excellence panel chair Paul Keating to seek a meeting with the billionaire to make it clear that the "principal civic dividend" of the project was nearly 60 per cent public open space.
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Keating said he told Packer he regarded "the public amenity of these lands as inviolate". In other words: back off from building on land reserved for the public's enjoyment.
Five years and much discussion later, Packer has approval for a 275-metre tall building on Barangaroo South, abutting the sensitive central portion of the site that was the subject of the initial angst. Notwithstanding complaints about the height and bulk of the approved building, the intervention by Keating, Moore and others at least protected the central area.
Or so we thought. This week we learnt the consequences of hitherto little known "agreements" between the NSW government's Barangaroo Delivery Authority, Packer's company Crown Resorts and Lend Lease. According to the authority, they state the casino company and the developer must be consulted "should there be any changes to Barangaroo Central that could affect sight lines to iconic views".
This appears to have sparked a feud over development plans at Barangaroo Central, which Crown feels risks impeding its "iconic views", presumably to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. The irony of Crown being concerned about the shape, location and size of a building at Barangaroo will be lost on no one.
Crown and Lend Lease fought strong community opposition to achieve a building 100 metres taller than the hotel envisaged in the initial masterplan, following former premier Barry O'Farrell's decision to ask Lend Lease to move it from over the harbour. They used a map embedded in legislation passed by the NSW Parliament to resist calls for the development to be moved away from the harbour foreshore in proceedings before the Planning Assessment Commission.
But more concerning – and yes, you've heard this many, many times before in relation to Barangaroo – is the process by which this is all taking place. The changes to development at Barangaroo Central stem from former premier Mike Baird's announcement in November 2015 that a new tender would be let with extra floor space due to the decision to include an underground Sydney Metro station. The authority has ceased publishing its board minutes of what it says are commercial sensitivities around the tender process.
The most recent concept plan for what might actually be built at Barangaroo Central – published on the NSW Planning website – is from April 2014 and given Baird's announcement, hopelessly out of date. We are told by the BDA that it expects to announce the winning tender in "late 2017" – potentially two years after the process began. Yet it is widely believed within the development industry that the authority has already chosen a winning tender – a consortium led by Grocon.
The hold-up appears to be at least in part the consultation between Grocon, Crown, Lend Lease and the authority over the new shape of Barangaroo Central. At the heart of those negotiations is likely to be Crown's desire to preserve views of the jewels of Sydney Harbour for its paying customers. All of which raises the prospect that when the authority does finally get around to releasing the winning designs, they may bear little resemblance to those initially pitched, thanks to the "consultation" with Crown and Lend Lease. Only at that stage will the public get to have its say via submissions to planning authorities.
Once again Sydneysiders are being treated like mugs over development at one of the city's most important sites. That's particularly galling when what is being discussed behind closed doors by vested interests is a key slice of Barangaroo supposed to have been reserved and cherished for public use.