By Duncan Leys, Acting President, Bulletin 02/2026, April

Former Remand Centre at Bidura 2024, by Ian Stephenson

I was alerted a few days ago by a member who had been watching the Planning Department’s website, that an application to make the Bidura development site subject to assessment as a ‘state significant development’ has been lodged.

If successful, this would bypass the previous consent granted by the Council of the City of Sydney after a tremendous amount of work. Essentially, the proposal now incorporates so-called ‘affordable housing’ which will enable it to be considered as a state significant development and allowing it to be 30% bigger. The towers in the new proposal are several floors higher than was negotiated with Council some two years ago.

The reason given for the change of plan is that the original proposal was not financially viable. Being considerably larger, the new proposal is presumably more financially viable.

I have noticed that work on Bidura itself, the heritage listed colonial house that fronts Glebe Point Road, seems have been stopped for the last few weeks with no one on site. I do not know the reason for this.

The submission from the developer lodged in December 2025 is on the Planning NSW website. According to the website, the application is waiting for an environmental impact statement (EIS) report.

I have not seen anything from the Council about this particular development, but it is something they predicted would happen with the introduction of the new planning system. The effect of enabling proposals such as this one to apply for state significant development assessment seems to be having the paradoxical effect of delaying rather than speeding up construction of new housing.