Byron Shire councillors will vote on a proposed hotel on Day 1 of the DA’s Land and Environment Court hearing

The Land and Environment Court gave the developer consent to file amended plans and councillors may decide the DA’s fate even as the hearing is under way.

Amended plans for a proposed hotel on Marvell Street in Byron Bay will go before the council at its May planning meeting.

Councillors will consider the fate of a new hotel proposed for Byron Bay the same day the development application goes before a Land and Environment Court hearing.

A development application, lodged by Pace Development Group Pty Ltd, lodged with Byron Shire Council in November, 2019, has sought approval for the demolition of an existing shop building and construction of a mixed-use building, including a hotel with 29 rooms, four ground floor retail shops, a basement car park including a health spa and rooftop “yoga platform” at 7 Marvell St.

The existing building was home to art gallery Eleni and the proposed work would cost an estimated $2.98 million.

In a report that will go before the council’s planning meeting on May 13, staff recommended the council’s general manager Mark Arnold be authorised to enter into consent orders or a conciliation agreement, based on a range of conditions.

The developer filed a Class 1 deemed refusal appeal against the council in the Land and Environment Court on February 28, 2020.

The existing shop building, home to the Eleni gallery, at 7 Marvell Street in Byron Bay.

That appeal is listed for a hearing on May 13 and 14.

The council’s legal counsel Ralph James said a site visit would take place before the hearing begins on May 13, and it was expected to get under way prior to the councillors’ vote on the matter.

Mr James said if the council doesn’t reach a resolution or the applicant doesn’t accept the conditions set out by staff, the hearing would proceed and the fate of the DA would be determined by the court.

“If council grant us delegation, it’s limited to those consent conditions, there’s no more wiggle room,” Mr James said.

If the applicant doesn’t accept those conditions there can be no conciliation agreement or consent orders made by staff, he said.

“If we get delegation and if the applicant is happy with the conditions it’s open to us to depart the hearing,” he said.

Amended plans for a proposed hotel on Marvell Street in Byron Bay will go before the council at its May planning meeting.

“(Then) it’s open to us to enter into a conciliation agreement or consent orders.

“It’s not open to the staff to negotiate further with the applicant (on the conditions).”

A conciliation conference was held on November 20 and, according to the council report, this “reached the point where the applicant was prepared to make significant amendments to the proposal so as to enable a conciliation agreement to be entered into”.

“Although the in-principle agreement reached at the conciliation conference did not produce a settled agreement subsequent without prejudice discussions have brought the parties closer to an agreed position,” the report said.

The matter was going before the council because staff don’t have the authority to enter into a conciliation agreement without the backing of a council resolution.

Amended plans for a proposed hotel on Marvell Street in Byron Bay will go before the council at its May planning meeting.

The court granted Pace Developments leave to lodge amended plans on April 29, also ordering that a joint expert report for town planning and traffic engineering experts be prepared.

Changes to the proposal have included the addition of a second basement level of carparking, the provision of a car share for hotel guests and changes to the front and rear facades.

The applicant increased the floor area of two of the ground floor retail shops from 40 to 100 sqm and provided more detail on its proposed departure from height limits and floor space ratio rules.

According to the council report, the building would exceed the 11.5 height limit by 1.65m in “discrete elements near to the centre of the site” on less than 4.2 per cent of the total roof area.

When the application was placed on public exhibition in late 2019, the council received 23 submissions opposing its construction.