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In a separate letter to independent planning commission chairman Carl Scully, Arnott highlighted NIDA’s concerns about disruption to operations. He said the university would have to relocate staff and students and “to my knowledge neither Iglu nor UNSW are considering offering compensation”. He noted the federal government was also not considering offering compensation.
Arnott did not suggest blocking the development, but he said if it goes forward, appropriate controls and conditions should be put in place, such as a greater distance from the NIDA building.
Actress and NIDA board member Sigrid Thornton addressed the planning group and said the housing development would destroy NIDA.
Thornton made his debut in 2000 with the ABC drama Sea ChangeThe development “threatens not only the physical space but a fundamental pillar of the Australian arts sector as a whole”, the council said.
“It is unimaginable that we find ourselves in a situation today where our most talented Australians – the creative visionaries of the future – could be disenfranchised and uprooted by a development that caters only to extremely wealthy students,” Thornton told the hearing on Tuesday.
Benjamin Schostakowski, dean of the academy and a graduate of the National Academy of Performing Arts, said the presence of the high-rise building posed a “significant safety risk” and would hamper the concentration and creative efforts of acting students.
The acting school has also recruited alumni including Mel Gibson and Richard Roxburgh to sign a letter to UNSW opposing the development.
The Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel is one of several independent panels set up by the state government to assess large or controversial development proposals.
Scully said angrily that the site had been idle for 22 years and accused three major stakeholders of allowing it to fall into disuse without clear plans or controls.
“The university, the board and NIDA could have taken action years ago to address these issues,” he said. “There are so many things that could have been properly addressed by all three parties that we are left to deal with now.”
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In addition to pre-conference briefings, about a dozen NIDA representatives spoke at the panel. Scully said NIDA had “more opportunities as a stakeholder than any other agency in the seven years that I chaired this panel.”
The panel will meet again next week to discuss potential modifications to the development, suggesting the project could be approved in some form. NIDA believes the decision should be reported to Planning Minister Paul Scully. “We believe any other approach is untenable,” West said.
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