Nine frustrated Frenchs Forest neighbours offer up huge block of houses
Nine neighbours opposite the Northern Beaches Hospital are selling at the same time in the hope a developer will rescue them from years of frustration.
The neighbours are sitting on nearly 9700sqm of land just 150m from the back entrance of the new hospital but they are just outside the rezoning boundary and fear becoming virtually landlocked.
Seven of the nine blocks are reached only via a right of way, between two houses, off Frenchs Forest Rd, after original access from Wakehurst Parkway was blocked off years ago. Land abutting the neighbours is within the rezoning area with potential new height limits of 34m.
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After years of pleading to council and the State Government to be included within the rezoning zone the homeowners have decided to sell all at once, but not as a consolidated block, hoping a developer might have a better chance of doing something with the large site.
Penny Paterson outside her home on Wakehurst Parkway at Frenchs Forest, one of the nine neighbours selling at the same time.
Penny Paterson, who has been at her Wakehurst Parkway home since 1992, says the residents have put their unique problem to all levels of government without success.
Two of the houses in Wakehurst Parkway that are for sale.
“The State Government has been unable to provide us with a satisfactory resolution for our plight.
The Northern Beaches Hospital from the right of way road on Frenchs Forest Rd.
“By agreeing to sell with our neighbours, we hope that we can provide a parcel of land sufficiently large enough that it can be redeveloped under current zoning,” she says. Paterson adds that residents are frustrated and angry that the rezoning process is so slow and their hidden pocket of homes is being disregarded.
Megan Mackay, of Ray White Frenchs Forest, who is marketing the properties in Wakehurst Parkway and Gladys Ave, says the large land is a big opportunity so close to the hospital and even with the low density R2 zoning there is the potential for several new buildings including educational and health facilities, manor houses and group homes.
The formal rezoning of Frenchs Forest was expected in January last year, then March, then September and now by the end of June this year.
Two of the houses in Wakehurst Parkway that are for sale.
NSW Planning minister Rob Stokes said recently he wanted to make Frenchs Forest a priority.
The nine blocks are being offered by expressions of interest closing on Thursday June 27 and the agents declined to give a price guide for the land.
The median house price in Frenchs Forest is $1.43 million.
This article from the Manly Daily originally appeared as “Nine neighbours selling near new Northern Beaches hospital”.
