A $649 million redevelopment of Sydney's Cockle Bay Wharf has been given the green light despite fears it will overshadow a proposed Town Hall square, with Sydney's Lord Mayor saying it may set a "shocking precedent".
The NSW Independent Planning Commission on Monday announced it had approved the project, which includes shops, bars, restaurants and a commercial office tower up to 183 metres high, despite objections from the City of Sydney council and the public.
The council has for many years been acquiring properties around Town Hall for a new public square.
It argues the project, on the southeastern side of Darling Harbour, will overshadow the square and create wind impacts while being inconsistent with the draft central Sydney planning strategy.
But the commission on Monday found any additional overshadowing of the square would be "outside of the time the space will experience peak utilisation such as lunchtime".
The height of the commercial office tower has been reduced to a maximum 183m, the commission said, and the building envelope has been reconfigured to limit overshadowing.
"I am shocked and appalled by the ... decision to approve a development in Cockle Bay that will overshadow the future Town Hall Square after 4pm," Lord Mayor Clover Moore told AAP in a statement. She added it risks setting "a shocking precedent".
Planning for the new civic space began more than three decades ago when developers abided by height and draft sun access controls, she said.
But a delay in the public exhibition of the draft central Sydney planning strategy meant commissioners were not guided by revised planning controls.
The lord mayor called on newly-appointed Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes to consider the impact of the plan on the public domain and "intervene" in stage two of the application.
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