The former high school land in Willarong Road, Caringbah. Picture by Murray Trembath

A State Significant Development (SSD) declaration given to a proposal for nearly 1000 apartments on former Caringbah High School land has been revoked.

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Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully has issued the order for this proposal and four others because they had "failed to meet timelines, or the applicant decided not to proceed."

The site, known at 113 Willarong Road, was declared SSD on July 24, 2025, allowing fast-tracked assessment by the Department of Planning and Environment

The Expression of Interest (EOI) application specified "residential flat buildings and shop top housing, including a centre-based childcare facility and provision of affordable housing."

Weathered DA on the fence of the site for an earlier much smaller proposed project. Picture by Murray Trembath

The Housing Delivery Authority, which recommended the SSD declaration, summarised the proposal as a "concept for 988 dwellings, with stage 1 to include 420 dwellings with 15 per cent affordable housing, across 10 buildings ranging from eight to 12 storeys, with ground floor uses including childcare, retail and health services."

Since the EOI was lodged in April 2025, several substantially larger developments at Caringbah and in other parts of Sutherland Shire have been proposed or approved.

The developer purchased the surplus land from the Education Department for about $20 million in 2012.

In 2021, approval was given to build 443 units.

The developer sought to increase the number of units to 648, and faced strong community opposition.

The DA for the proposed increase was refused by Sydney South Planning Panel, leading to an appeal to the Land and Environment Court.

During the court process the developer sought to further change the plans to substantially increase the height of some of the proposed buildings.

The court did not allow the further amended plans to be considered and the developer withdrew from the court proceedings in 2024.

In April 2025, the developer submitted an EOI to the state government seeking for the project to be declared State Significant Development, and it was approved.

On the day, June 10, Mr Scully revoked the five SSD declarations, he also approved a further 27 projects for fast-tracked processing following recommendations from the Housing Delivery Authority.

Of the latest SSD declared proposals, 24 are in metropolitan Sydney and three are in regional NSW.

Mr Scully said, if all were approved, they would provide about 8400 homes, including affordable housing across NSW.

"To date, on the recommendation of the HDA 373 proposals have been declared SSD, which would create more than 124,500 homes," he said.

"Eight of these proposals have been approved, unlocking more than 1900 homes.

"State Significant Development applications have been lodged for a further 60 projects representing around 19,800 potential homes."