Resident fears a 'Flinders Street ghetto' if high-rises keep going up
Wollongong's northern gateway is sprouting cranes. For long-time locals like Tim Wand, the pace of construction is starting to feel like the very city they left behind.
Tim Wand moved to Wollongong to escape the congestion and high-density living of Sydney. Standing on his balcony this week, he watched cranes turn over another stretch of Flinders Street and worried the gateway to the city was being remade in Sydney's image.
Up to a dozen towers are in train along the Flinders Street corridor between the railway line and the escarpment, part of a planning push that has reshaped the northern entrance to the CBD over the past three years.
Mr Wand told the Wollongong Daily News he did not oppose new housing but feared poor design and a lack of green space would leave the strip with the character of a freeway median rather than a neighbourhood.
Wollongong City Council has defended the precinct's planning controls, pointing to height limits, setback requirements and contributions toward open space that it says will deliver a 'mixed and liveable' street over the next decade.
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