• After a careful examination  of the amended DA, proposing to convert the existing Tesltra building into one of the world's largest Backpacker's hostel, our community outlined key areas where the proposal is a odds with City of Sydney's own goals, fails to address predictable issues, ignores its potential impact and doesn't meet existing building standards and regulations. 

• Friends of Chippendale is dedicated to make our area thrive, and we welcome respectful, future-proof, coherent development in our area. This project's vision is insufficient. Sydney and our community deserve better. We propose alternatives to this DA, offering solutions for the community as well as developers.

May14th 2025:

The developers have made several amendments to the original DA, here is a summary of our response to City of Sydney.

Unfortunately, the underlying pattern of minimal investment and disregard for existing regulations and residents persists. The proposal still fails to meet the standards of sustainable design or responsible construction and remains more harmful than beneficial to the area. While minor improvements are welcome and have been suggested, the core issues—including environmental, regulatory non-compliance and disproportionate negative local impacts—remain. Friends of Chippendale conducted a detailed review, identifying multiple issues that still persist and offering practical solutions to reduce the project’s harm.

Beyond this, the project misses an opportunity  lead by example, make itself future-proof and be a truly green and aspirational building. Something it can do whilst saving on running costs and improving the area.

The main points of contentions are:

• Sustainability: No wastewater management, no on-site recycling, no guarantee green electricity will be used.

• Traffic & Safety Risks: Eliminates Broadway access, rerouting all vehicles through narrow residential streets, breaching SEPP and DCP clauses.

• Overdevelopment: FSR increase from 3:1 to 3.78:1 exceeds planning limits by 26% without infrastructure upgrades.

• Non-Compliant Design: Minimal changes provided. Guest rooms and facilities breach City of Sydney minimum standards for storage, sanitation, and communal space.

• Ignored Community Input: Over 300 objections raised concerns unaddressed in revised plans; collaboration offers rejected by developer.

• Misuse of Developer Contributions: Chippendale sees minimal return on its contributions; urgent call for traffic calming and local reinvestment with CoS.

The DA fails to align with City of Sydney’s sustainability goals by not adequately addressing water and electricity usage. City of Sydney prides itself of pursuing a sustainable agenda, with the stated goal of net zero by 2050 . In their own words:

As Sydney grows it is important to design and build efficient and environmentally smart buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water use and waste generation.

Approving the current version of the DA would be an incomprehensible decision, at odds with City of Sydney's stated goals.

The proposal does not account for any wastewater collection or on-site food composting and although it includes solar panels, they are only suitable to cover the electricity of an average 4-people household. The building's energy relies almost entirely on the grid. Using a provider using 100% renewable should be a a requirement.

It is very clear from the DA that quick return on investments has bee prioritized over any other considerations, including the interest of City of Sydney, local residents, and even customers. Everywhere, corners have been cut, deliberate omissions have been made, and countless regulations have been ignored to maximize profit.

On-site composting, inspired by Melbourne's Hero appartments would allow maintaining healthy green spaces on the building itself. Surplus you say? We love compost! and so does "sustainable Chippendale". We could use some to maintain a healthy green coverage throughout the suburb on parks, parklets and swales. 

Why is city composting so good you may ask? Don't take our word for it, this comprehensive report from the Churchill institute is best in class, page 108-114 in particular.

The Development Application (DA) bypasses key planning requirements. Under Clause 7.20 of the Sydney LEP 2012, both a Development Control Plan (DCP) and a competitive design process are required—neither has been submitted. Although labelled a "backpackers hostel," the project's scale, layout, and operations more closely resemble student accommodation, which is subject to stricter guidelines (DCP Section 4.2.9). This raises serious concerns about the application’s intent and transparency. 

The DA itself acknowledges an FSR 26% above regulations, without offering any strong reason for such an increase in density, prioritizing quick profit. Our recommendation is to simply reduce the number of beds to around 400. This would alleviate impacts at all levels, let it be road safety, environmental, noise or waste management.
Besides, it doesn't align with the codes of conduct of the main stakeholders.

The proposal includes 43 new south-facing windows that directly overlook neighboring homes on Knox Street. These features introduce substantial visual and noise impacts that are incompatible with the surrounding residential character. Despite these concerns, the DA states there will be “no privacy impacts.” This position contradicts the intent of DCP Section 4.2.8, which governs visitor accommodation and prioritizes residential amenity, as well as the Chippendale Locality Statement, which emphasizes the protection of quiet, residential environments. 

Mind-boggling similarities between our vision and the South-Sydney city council's for Knox street. This was contingent upon developing other buildings on Knox street, relying on developers contributions being spent in the immediate vicinity of the project, as it should. Why it was never implemented remains unclear. What is clear though, is that when City of Sydney merged with South City Council in 2004, it took over all its current projects and responsibilities.