Australia’s most affluent council has narrowly voted in favour of a controversial plan for 3000 new homes, billed as a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to revive an ageing hub in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Waverley Council voted to adopt the final draft of its Bondi Junction master plan at its July meeting on Tuesday night, after months of furious opposition from local NIMBYS accused of “spamming” the consultation process with AI-generated complaints.
Bondi Junction is around 2km inland from the world famous Bondi Beach.
The “bold” plan, released in May, envisions new mid- and high-rise apartments around Bondi Junction’s busy railway station and a “revitalised” outdoor mall as part of a strategy to “transform the centre into a world-class cultural, civic and commercial hub”.
But the proposal has attracted the ire of anti-development residents — labelled NIMBYS, for “not in my backyard” — mirroring scenes playing out in council chambers across the country as state and local governments push to boost density in established suburbs.
A record 32 members of the public spoke at the meeting, with the majority in support.
George Maatouk said he wanted to see “tired and lifeless” Bondi Junction, which sits adjacent to the Westfield Bondi shopping centre, return to the vibrancy of the ‘90s and early 2000s when it was the “heart of the east”. Bruce Goldberg said the area was currently a “dump”.
Several Gen Z locals and renters spoke in favour, saying it would help housing affordability and bring life back to the area.
“I’m from the TikTok generation, the generation that never got to experience the proper night life that everyone raves about,” said Richard Studencki. Dominic Behrens said “tens of thousands of young people” were being forced to leave Sydney.
“You cannot simply as the next generation to move to Orange instead of solving this problem,” Ben Curtis added.
A number of speakers opposed the plan, raising concerns about the loss of sunlight – particularly at Clementson Park – and public amenities, the “rushed” consultation process and whether the plan would actually deliver affordable homes instead of luxury apartments.
Charlie Bennell said she was affected by the housing crisis “yet like most of the community I reject the master plan”, saying the debate was “framed as a choice between 100-metre towers taller than Westfield” and affordable housing.
Kirsten Lunoe said the plan “locks in massive buildings and height … with no guarantees of affordability”. Karla Burnett said there was no detail on additional infrastructure such as school capacity to absorb thousands of new residents.
During debate on the proposal itself – which did not get underway until nearly 10pm – independent councillor Steven Lewis moved a motion to defer a vote until early August.
Cr Lewis said it was a disgrace that councillors had only been provided with the complex final documents days before the meeting.
“We’ve had more detailed briefings on the size of a dog fence in Barracluff Park,” he said.
“This is one of the most important documents to come before this council in 20 years and we as councillors, who have a statutory duty, have not had a minute with the planners to go through it in a granular form.”
Labor councillor Paula Masselos, who backed the failed motion, agreed saying councillors had not been provided a number of key reports including a social needs assessment report and a detailed transport study.
“We got the material fairly late, Thursday and Friday, in a format that was very hard to read with very complex matters that will impact our community in perpetuity – let’s be frank, it’s not just 20 years,” she said.
Cr Masselos said there was no debate that there needed to be a master plan to address housing targets but the community “want to be included in the process so it’s community-led, not developer-led”.
“The community are not NIMBYS, they want to be partners,” she said.
“Contrary to what we heard tonight, Waverley is one of the most densely populated LGAs in Australia. We are only nine square kilometres. We have more residents living in high rise than most other suburbs, already we’re on the way to having met half of the housing targets. We can meet the extra 3000 not by having huge high-rises (which) the developers are turning into luxury apartments. We can look to LMR (low- and medium-rise), the missing middle.”
Tempers frayed just prior to the final vote at 11pm, as Cr Nemesh clashed with Cr Lewis after the Mayor made reference to councillors making “snide remarks” during an earlier question-and-answer with Waverley general manager Emily Scott.
Cr Lewis leapt to his feet on a point of order, declaring that the Mayor was “directing a comment directly to another councillor which is false” and demanded he withdraw.
The Mayor insisted “there were snide remarks that were made” but “it was not directed at you so there’s nothing to withdraw”.
Cr Nemesh and the five other Liberal councillors voted to adopt the master plan.
Labor Deputy Mayor Keri Spooner, along with the two other Labor councillors, the two Greens and Cr Lewis voted against.
Cr Spooner said it was “really disappointing”.
“You say council do listen to residents – they didn’t listen to residents,” she said.
“The residents asked for more shadow modelling, 3D diagrams. I’m going to have my fingers crossed that in the next phase, the planning phase, there is going to be adequate consultation. I’m being told in the next phase it’s too late, [the building heights are locked in].”
Earlier, a local residents’ action group had sought to derail the proposal.
“After releasing a new version of the plan at the end of last week, along with a completely new urban design study (a total of 465 pages) the Liberal faction and Mayor are looking to try and rush this masterplan through to adoption,” the Save Bondi Junction group shared on Facebook on Monday.
“This is despite having no democratic mandate to do so after the community conclusively rejected the plan in their 830 written submissions on June 24th. The new version should go back out on consultation and not be adopted!”
Waverley Council’s meeting last month descended into chaos as members of the public heckled and screamed at councillors and the Mayor.
“The behaviour has been appalling,” one source told news.com.au.
“Screaming abuse, foul language, jeering at anyone speaking in support of it. It’s disgusting and so out of place at a suburban council meeting. Needing security to remove people who won’t stop yelling is crazy.”
That came after revelations by local newspaper the Wentworth Courier that the Save Bondi Junction website, created by local resident Catharine Munro, was using AI to help people quickly draft complaints to submit to the feedback process.
Users would enter their name and address before ticking boxes which represent their concerns — such as “heritage lost” or “loss of sunlight” — before clicking a “draft my submission” button, with AI program Claude Sonnet then drafting the complaint.
Ms Munro told the newspaper it was “just a tool for helping you write an email”.
“People struggle with making submissions,” she said. “It gets them over that procrastination and writers’ block or confidence issues.”
Council ultimately received 830 written submissions, nearly two thirds negative, according to the engagement report.
Save Bondi Junction was contacted for comment.
Cr Masselos, Waverley’s former Labor mayor, last month denied co-ordinating community objections to the master plan after she sent a blank email — apparently in error — to councillors and several state MPs with the subject “Bondi Junction Masterplan Objection”.
Cr Masselos told The Australian Financial Review she was representing the concerns of residents in a “community-led response”.
“That’s rubbish,” she said of the email. “I was looking at a website, I clicked on [a link] to see who was on the list and it glitches. There’s nothing in the email — this is a smear attack.”
Justin Simon, chair of pro-development group Sydney YIMBY, said the level of hostility sparked by the Bondi Junction proposal was unsurprising.
“The eastern suburbs are always going to be more vociferously NIMBY than anywhere else in Australia,” he told news.com.au.
“It’s the richest area, the most privileged, people are used to getting their own way. For a lot of people this will be the first time in their life they’ve been told ‘no’.”
Mr Simon noted that the Waverley community was divided, with residents from Bronte — who oppose high-rises in their area — supporting more density for Bondi Junction.
“There’s an element of no matter what council does, there will be a bunch of people at council yelling at them,” he said.
“They just need to show some leadership. The plan is good, it puts homes near public transport in an area where there’s very high demand and rents are up 50 per cent over five years. People are constantly getting priced out of the eastern suburbs and this helps address that.”
Opponents of the master plan “are effectively asking for more delays”, he added.
“This is the whole playbook — throw up procedural complaints, throw dust in the air, anything you can to delay new housing. We think that’s not something we can wait for at the moment.”
Cr Nemesh said in a statement on Monday that the “community response to the draft Master Plan shows broad support for the vision we have developed”.
“Locals want Bondi Junction to be a place that is alive, activated and vibrant while providing the services and infrastructure expected of a world-class destination,” he said.
Council said there was strong support for the transformation of Oxford Street Mall and plans to improve access to the Bondi Junction train station and bus interchange, as well as delivering more cycling and walking paths throughout the suburb.
The plan for more community facilities within the Civic precinct — from a new Library to a performing arts space — was well-received, as was a major boost to public green spaces, according to council.
“We have heard the feedback and made amendments to the draft Master Plan to balance the needs of a growing population with our responsibilities to improve housing supply while preserving heritage and amenity,” Cr Nemesh said.
Amendments to the plan include revised building heights around expanded Clementson Park and Ebley Street and within heritage conservation areas, in line with heights proposed by the state government’s low- and mid-rise housing policy.
Council argues the proposed building heights are significantly less than those proposed under current state significant development applications within Bondi Junction.
The plan also states that heritage items like Westgate House and The Nelson Hotel will be protected.
“This is a strategy for managing growth and ensuring we do density well in the areas where it is most appropriate,” Cr Nemesh said.
“Importantly, the master plan is just the first piece of work to be done. If adopted, there will be further detailed technical studies as part of a planning proposal process. Council will continue to consult our community every step of the way.”
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