The Cyprus Club says it will continue to work with Sydney’s Inner West Council on its new clubhouse and residential development, following council’s rejection of its latest development proposal.
Developers Platino Properties had its Planning Proposal for the ageing Stanmore property declined in its current form due to concerns over traffic management and building height levels.
“Councillors expressed strong support for the Cyprus Community and its objective to remain at Stanmore and redevelop its premises,” the Board of the Cyprus Community of NSW said in a statement.
The recent Council decision was to be expected, the Board said, and it had an ongoing plan in place to complete the rezoning within the coming months.
“We have already prepared the next steps required to complete the rezoning process and confidently anticipate it will be finalised by Council and the State Government in the first part of 2023,” the statement said.
The president of the Community, Andrew Costa, also wished to thank Councillors for their expressions of support for the Cyprus Community and has renewed the club’s commitment to work with Council and State government to progress the rezoning to completion in the near future.
Inner West Council had requested the Department of Planning & Environment make post-exhibition changes to a rezoning proposal earlier this year and to “defer the commencement of the Local Environmental Plan (LEP) to allow preparation of site-specific Development Control Plan (DCP) and Planning Agreement”.
“Post-exhibition amendments… are recommended… to respond to the issues raised in submissions by local community and further mitigate the environmental and social impacts of the proposal,” the Council report added.
But Costa had earlier said during a Council meeting on December 6 that the future of The Cyprus Club was at risk of closure if the development did not go ahead.
“The building is old, we need redevelopment. Without redevelopment, our Community will close. The bank will not allow us to continue unless we redevelop and refinance our community,” Costa said.
“The choice is we either proceed with the redevelopment or the banks will foreclose on us.”
