Court upholds refusal for multi-dwelling development
Central Coast Council's refusal of an application to build a three-unit multi-dwelling development at 34 Warrah St, Ettalong, has been upheld by the Land and Environment Court.
The Council refusal was the result of a Local Planning Panel hearing on November 24, which was prompted by 15 public submissions.
Council planners had recommended refusal.
The Court dismissed an appeal by CCS Design Pty Ltd trading as Knight Mapleton Design Partners against the refusal in a decision on Wednesday, February 21.
In giving his decision, Commissioner Peter Walsh said the front setback configuration "would bring about a significantly substandard, visually dominant streetscape presentation".
"This is something planning controls are directly seeking to resist", as they "relate to its setting and the desired future character".
He also said that the applicant had also failed to demonstrate justification for building on a site of less than the minimum lot size specified in the planning provisions for multi-dwelling developments.
Commissioner Walsh said that "housing supply objectives need to mesh with local planning controls in order to read the full picture on planning ambition".
He said: "It is not clear at all that this site is not capable of providing for three dwellings, certainly if 'smaller households' are a target.
"Each of the three dwellings as proposed is quite large with three bedrooms, upstairs and downstairs living rooms and multiple bathrooms."
He said that, while the proposal complied with height and floor space ratio standards, "it does not comply with certain important prescribed controls and objectives".
"Were the site a little larger there may be a better capacity to comply with such provisions.
"The site is not large enough for the proposal as designed.
"I am not satisfied that the proposal is consistent with the following two zone objectives: To ensure that development is compatible with the desired future character of the zone. To promote best practice in the design of multi dwelling housing and other similar types of development."
Commissioner Walsh said that both the earlier Gosford Council provisions, under which the application had been lodged, and the more recent Central Coast Council provisions had similar objectives for multi-dwelling housing.
"Both ... are looking for higher quality rather than very basic responses to context, as multi dwelling housing developments continue to be developed in the local area," he said.
"This is evident in the unusually direct reference to this housing type in the zone objective for both: promotion of best practice in the design of multi dwelling housing.
"There is also the fact of the calling up of the historical character statements in CCDCP with its ambitions for urban design quality and surrounding dwelling unit housing with leafy gardens."
SOURCE:
Website, 4 Mar 2024
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