Comments made here were sent to Blue Mountains City Council. Add your own comment.
I feel this development is not in keeping with the village’s aesthetic which is an essential aspect of the villages tourism industry. Efforts should be made to keep to the original design of the building as much as practical
This should be converted back to a hotel/motel accommodation... with a nice pub and beer garden at the front. With three other new motel accommodations proposed, why not revert this to a hotel? Better to have the accommodation here than the proposed monoliths at Brightlands which is in a residential area. The Ritz should be renovated in the style of the Carrington for both tourists and locals to enjoy.
The size of the proposed redevelopment of the Ritz is not in accordance with the height of other buildings for the area. The use of Wascoe street and the impact on surrounding residents is not in accordance with the village of Leura . The aim of an ‘exclusive’ aged care facility is also not community minded and isn’t in keeping with the needs of the Blue Mountains community . We do have an aging population but this facility is not aimed as providing accommodation for local blue mountains elderly but at ‘wealthy’ people with expensive hotel style aged care . This will have a negative impact on local community, will increase traffic to the borders of a residential area and give back nothing to the community. The area around the Ritz is a traffic and parking hazard area as it is . This is not needed in Leura .
I am writing this as a frequent visitor to my mother’s house in Leura because I am extremely concerned about the potential for this development to set a negative precedent for Leura village.
Her home, Wascoe street and Leura village is currently under threat due to a development proposal for the ‘The Ritz’.
Mum’s cottage (which is itself a locally significant heritage property) shares two boundaries with the Ritz, and will bear the brunt of the high density ‘wing’ buildings proposed.
It seems from neighbouring residents and Leura locals we've been chatting to, most locals if they have 'thought' about the Ritz redevelopment at all:
1. Are under the misapprehension it's simply restoring the existing heritage buildings that comprised the old nursing home (ie within the current buildings) and don't realise the scope of the new glass and brick Wing buildings for 123 one bedroom units with ensuites planned for the rear of the property along quiet Wascoe Street. Notwithstanding its proposed new use as a ‘residential aged care’ facility it will be the equivalent of putting a multi-storey hotel or apartment block in the heart of Leura village.
2. Believe Council is the consent authority (rather than the Sydney Western Planning Panel) and thus may not appreciate that even if Council are sympathetic to resident concerns and wish to uphold the LEP and DCP controls they may be overridden by the Planning Panel members who of course do not reside or work in the Blue Mountains.
Another ‘live’ issue for Leura and Council is the Culgoa hotel proposal also on Leura Mall and recently refused, which only sought to exceed the density controls by around 20%. By contrast the developer Pathways is seeking variations of more than 66% for density (increase to the ‘floor to space’ ratio) and up to 58% increase in height than the long standing controls for the Ritz site and ‘zone’ contemplate.
I believe this is a cynical attempt to claim adaptive reuse of heritage buildings that is masquerading as fulfilling a ‘need’ for luxury seniors housing to get up an extremely overbuilt set of modern buildings that will devastate and detract from the special character of Leura village.
Also worsening traffic, parking issues and the strain that an additional 123 elderly and complex healthcare needs residents will put on the already struggling Blue Mountains District Anzac Memorial Hospital where there is no emergency surgery has not been seriously addressed by the revised DA.
Neither has there been any information about an upgrade to 'local' road Wascoe Street which will be turned into a busy thoroughfare. The developer's traffic study (that is not updated) was conducted on Friday 4 December 2020 during the COVID lockdowns, and claims to be representative of a typical week day in Leura. The lockdown restrictions for NSW were not lifted until Monday 7 December.
Finally this does nothing to advance Council's priority for affordable or social housing for seniors - it will be run as an up market luxury facility. Council should consider adding a condition that some rooms are designated for social or affordable housing.
The restoration of the Ritz is overdue and important, but it should not be at the expense of neighbouring residents amenity or at the cost of weakening other heritage and development controls. A scaled back development will hopefully achieve a situation that all parties can live with.
We feel that this development is not in keeping with the village’s aesthetic. New proposed redevelopment should be inspired by the original outstanding architecture of the Ritz building. In this particular location close to Leura Mall the new development or part of it should also include the tourist facilities. We would like to suggest to redesign part of the building and accommodate new shops, restaurant maybe small boutique hotel. The Ritz should be part of the Leura Village, attracting the tourists and local people. This is for sure not a place for nursing home only. Also the modern appearance of the new wings of the building should be redesign to match the heritage appearance of the main Ritz building. Hopefully Council will consider all the above concerns.
Kind regards,
Barbara & Darek Szymanski
The increase in density, height and scale proposed by the developers of the old Ritz in Leura conflicts with the heritage protections and streetscape in place at sites along and in properties surrounding Leura Mall, even if there are new "wings" attached to the old frontage. The development as a whole would greatly impact on and likely destroy the current character of Leura Village. The increased height proposed in particular means the building will overlook and be seen from Katoomba to the west and from much of residential south Leura. The proposal for a huge age care facility of this nature virtually on top of the tourist shopping and resident services centre of Leura Village at a critical through traffic point represents a direct conflict in possible land uses and incompatible development needs that include in particular a likely highly detrimental increase in traffic and service vehicles associated with no capacity to manage in any meaningful sense. The current Leura traffic management proposal, to move the tourist buses onto Grose Street, at the expense of small business and a multitude of residential services, will not remove the existing and future traffic management problem and there will be potential "gridlock" as a result of this development on the scale proposed. The residential amenity in surrounding streets to the south east and west in particular will be destroyed by traffic, parking by others and loss of privacy. The existing residential and tourist amenity of south Leura will be compromised. As it is now several years since the old Ritz "nursing home" facility operated and a new tourism landscape post COVID and changes in Australias foreign affairs and trade relations, the project should be reassessed with a focus to return to the traditional historical long term use of this site for boutique hotel stay and a more suitable site found for contemporary and future age care housing needs. Perhaps the developers should be encouraged to study the successful low impact Morven Gardens model.
Without repeating all the other comments about this development being completely inappropriate for the adjoining Leura shopping area, it just shows that the BIG mistake was letting the Ritz be changed to a nursing home years ago, and if it was kept as a hotel/guest house we probably would not be having this dialogue now.
