Former panel member urges use of draft controls

A former member of the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel has urged council planners to use draft planning controls rather than current adopted controls to assess a five-unit residential flat proposal for Booker Bay.

Mr Michael Leavey, now in private practice as Michael Leavey Consulting, submitted the application for Coast-Style Homes Pty Ltd at 90-92 Booker Bay Rd.

The proposal has side setbacks of as little as 900mm where current planning provisions require an average side setback of four metres and a minimum of 3.5 metres.

"In support of the side setbacks as proposed, Council's draft Central Coast DCP 2018 proposes changes to side setbacks for two-storey residential flat buildings, with an envelope control being proposed that is a minimum 900mm side setback to a building height of 4.5m.

"The proposal would meet the proposed 900mm setback to a building height of 4.5m."

The proposal was for a two-storey residential flat building costing more than two million dollars containing five units, and with ground level, single-storey parking for parking for 10 cars which was "sleeved behind" the front unit.

The units are four three-bedroom and one four-bedroom units.

"The rear, ground level units have covered alfresco areas and small in-ground plunge pools on the water side.

"The building has an elongated form consistent with the shape of the land, and has a contemporary appearance that provides both articulation and separation between building elements in order to reduce the bulk of the development.

"The maximum height of the building is 8.495 metres, with the highest point occurring at the rear elevation.

"The balance of the development has a lower building height, which steps down towards the front building element."

The site at 90 and 92 Booker Bay Rd, Booker Bay, has an area of 1238.9 square metres, a street frontage of 12.19 metres and frontage at the rear to Booker Bay.

"There are existing dwelling houses on both properties, and a garage structure located on the front boundary of No.92 facing Booker Bay Rd."

"The gross floor area of the development is 678.95 square metres, which is a floor space ratio of 0.548:1."

This exceeds the maximum ratio of 0.5:1 where basement parking is not provided.

The application is open for public comment until September 17.

SOURCE:

DA Tracker, 20 Aug 2021

DA62725, Central Coast Council