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A Sydney council is fighting against the redevelopment of a rundown retirement village in a bushfire-prone suburb, warning that vulnerable elderly residents would be at risk.

Developer Levande wants its Lourdes Retirement Village in Killara rezoned from low to medium density and maximum building heights more than doubled to 22 metres to permit an upgrade of the facility.

An aerial view of Lourdes Retirement Village in Killara.Credit: Sam Mooy

Plans to redevelop the Killara retirement village date back to 2018, with the latest proposal seeking to build 141 independent living units, a new aged care facility with 110 beds and 63 townhouses.

However, Ku-ring-gai Council said Levande had not conducted a proper assessment of bushfire risks and how it would protect vulnerable elderly residents in the event of fire.

The council also said in its submission to the planning department that it did “not want to be held in any way responsible in the event of a bushfire-related incident and any resulting coronial inquest”.

Davidson Liberal MP Matt Cross this month raised community concerns in the NSW parliament about the rezoning proposal, calling on the department to strongly consider the council’s concerns and bushfire risks.

The Rural Fire Service has not objected to rezoning the site, although its submission also said it had not approved any development at this stage.

Levande chief executive Kevin McCoy did not answer The Sun-Herald’s questions, but said in a statement that the upgrades were needed because Lourdes no longer met market expectations or the standards of a modern retirement village.

Levande was forced to repair a building housing serviced apartments on the site, which it had closed, after the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found the company had breached the Retirement Villages Act.

The planning proposal included a consultant’s bushfire report that said the site was suitable for redevelopment and had the “capability to provide appropriate bushfire protection measures”.

Frank Brady, 95 and Thelma Johnson, 88, in front of Levande Lourdes, Retirement Village in Killara.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

But a council spokeswoman said Levande’s proposal had not shown how an increased number of dwellings and residents would be protected during a bushfire, “given the expected increase in fire events due to climate change”.

“The planning proposal does not provide adequate separation from adjacent fire risk bushland to ensure a defendable space for buildings and firefighters,” she said.

She said the council was also concerned about a lack of transport services to the site, heritage and environmental impacts and the scale of the development.

“Although the site is high-risk, the landowner may continue to operate a retirement village on the site under existing planning approvals,” she said.

‘I could easily imagine one of [the residents] having a fall or heart attack if they had to leave in haste.’

Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment president Kathy Cowley said the proposal, if approved, set a dangerous precedent that the state government and RFS will ignore appropriate land use and bushfire hazards to deliver housing.

“The proposal prioritises developer profits over the safety of residents and emergency personnel,” she said.

Katy Brady said she was worried about the risk of bushfire and had her parents, who lived in the retirement village, stay with her during the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20 “so that they would not have to leave the village in a hurry”.

“I could easily imagine one of them having a fall or heart attack if they had to leave in haste and with the stress of smoke and approaching fire,” she said.

Brady’s mother has since died and moving her 95-year-old father Frank to another seniors living facility would be disruptive and stressful, she said. “He would leave behind familiar surrounds and many memories of mum, and long-standing friendships.”

The Sydney North Planning Panel will determine the rezoning application later this year after considering a report from the Planning Department, which a spokesman said would include concerns about bushfire, traffic, ecology and biodiversity.

However, no development can occur until Levande submits a development application that would again be subject to review from the council, RFS and residents, he said.

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