With a long-chequered history in the NSW planning system, dating back to 2016, Stockland’s Castle Hill retirement village has officially been rezoned to allow a major redevelopment.

Located at 346 – 350 Old Northern Road, Castle Ridge Resort was approved and constructed in the 1980s as a retirement village. In February last year, Swedish investor EQT paid $987 million for Stockland’s retirement living business and rebranded it to Levande. Levande inherited the impasse with Hills Shire Council to redevelop this site.

The site’s renewed planning controls are noted below:

• ‘seniors housing’ is now an additional permitted use, which is permitted under the site’s existing C4 Environmental Living zoning,
• the site’s building height has doubled from 9 metres to 18 metres, and
• the site’s FSR has increased to 0.83:1.

Accompanied with the rezoning proposal was a well-considered master plan, which provided for:

• an indicative yield of 247 high-amenity apartments that demonstrate compliance with the Apartment Design Guide,
• buildings ranging from 3-6-storeys with increased heights located in the centre of the site to minimise visual impacts. A 0 metre height limit is proposed for the central parkland,
• a 1300sqm community hub providing a range of on-site amenities and health facilities, and
• retention of the large communal parkland, protection of the majority of significant trees and 50% of the site as landscaped area.

A site-specific development control plan also accompanied the proposal and contains typical controls relating to building design, setbacks, access, residential amenity, site coverage, trees and landscaped area.

A voluntary planning agreement is also being secured to allocate monetary contributions towards local infrastructure items, including upgrades to Pioneer Place Reserve.