By the TVC's acting president, Elliot Stein

The Thirroul Village Committee, an open forum of Thirroul community members established in 1991, has extracted major commitments from the developers of the Thirroul Plaza in a public meeting held on Sunday, 23rd February.

At TVC’s first meeting of 2025 a representative of Solid Void, the development manager engaged by the owners of Thirroul Plaza to consult with the community, attended and addressed members. Over the course of 2024 the development manager has attended TVC meetings to provide updates on the proposal.

The TVC has welcomed this engagement as a sign of rebuilding the community’s trust after previous attempts to redevelop the Plaza were met with strong community opposition.

The Thirroul Plaza is currently being considered for a major redevelopment after its previous plans were rejected by the NSW Land and Environment Court following a campaign by Save Thirroul Village supported by the TVC.

In the presentation by Solid Void, it was confirmed that the developers were exploring using the State Government’s new ‘accelerated’ approval scheme. This process involves lodging an expression of interest with the Housing Development Authority which can bypass local council oversight, appeal and approvals. The TVC has gained explicit commitments to a full community survey and dedicated formal workshops on the proposal.

The previous redevelopment contained a proposal for a new shopping centre, 77 units and underground parking. The development manager stated that there were no new plans for the development of the plaza, and that the expression of interest only represented a “high level summary” of the new development. It was stated this would contain a number of units “clearly less than what was previously rejected”.

The development manager shared that any development would contain zero social housing and that any affordable housing, if any, would be very minimal as part of the Plaza.

During a lengthy discussion, the TVC proposed and gained the support of the development manager to agree to the following:

• The developer agreed to conduct "formal workshops" with both the TVC and Save Thirroul Village on any development of Thirroul Plaza;
• The developer will conduct a full community survey on the new design of the Thirroul Plaza;
• The developer agreed that in the event that an accelerated pathway that an "accelerated community consultation" process would also be taken that would be conducted in a form that "we both agree on".

Furthermore, the TVC was deeply concerned with the exploration of the accelerated pathway.

The following was resolved on this: The TVC noted with deep concern that should an accelerated pathway be taken on the Thirroul Plaza that it would be a breach of the community's trust on the project and a loss of goodwill. The TVC noted that Solid Void (on behalf of the developer) agreed with all of these points in this resolution.