Jamie Durie’s development plan for a six-storey mansion has hit a roadblock

Celebrity gardener Jamie Durie has run into trouble trying to build a six-storey mansion on the northern beaches - locals are furious at his plan to fell native trees.

Celebrity gardener and greenie Jamie Durie has dug himself into a corner with a development application to tear down 17 native trees to make way for a six-storey mansion on a waterfront plot in posh Avalon.

Northern Beaches Council was inundated with objections from furious ­locals and organisations, including the Pittwater Natural Heritage Association and the Avalon Preservation Association.

Former Manpower stripper Durie applied to pull down the original 1960s four-bedroom cottage and build a $3m “family home” on the sloping block with a design that is “innovative, sympathetic and responsive to the topography of the site”.

View from the original cottage in Avalon which celebrity gardener Jamie Durie submitted a DA to overhaul, including by tearing down trees.

It will have six bedrooms, three of them with ensuites, a swimming pool, butler’s pantry, two-car garage, music studio, media room, laundry, kids play area and a gym.

After being contacted by The Telegraph, Durie last night said he was furious and upset that his planner had not included the arborist’s report in the submission to council which said five of the trees, including three “weeds’’, would need to be removed no matter what.

He said “there has been a gross misunderstanding”.

Durie confirmed he had written to Council on Sunday revising the application so that he was only asking to remove nine trees.

Jamie Durie’s response to the DA submissions., page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

“After strong consideration of your comments we have decided to amend our current DA as we are flexible in our approach,” he wrote.

“The amendments to the design reduce the footprint and preserve additional native trees.”

The Telegraph contacted Durie for comment about the backlash to his DA at 10am on Sunday and again at 3pm.

He responded shortly after 7pm, and then shared the letter he had drafted to council addressing the concerns.

Durie’s amendment followed a strong opposition on the council website.

“If this is a ‘family home’ then homes have certainly blown-out when compared to the modest homes that have until now sustained our fragile ecosystem in Pittwater,” one objector, Danielle Bressington, wrote to the council.

Celebrity gardener Jamie Durie. Picture: Supplied

Neighbour John Sheehan, a former acting judge of the Land and Environment Court, wrote in his objection that the application was “fatally flawed” is “likely to have serious and irreversible impacts on biodiversity values”.

Durie, an ambassador for Planet Ark’s National Tree Day, originally sought permission to remove trees including spotted gum, broad-leafed white mahogany, forest oak, grey gum, Christmas bush and grey ironbark.

Neighbours are worried the development will affect trees on their own sites, as well as dwarf their homes. Other objectors worried about the impact on wildlife.

The area has been designated one of special significance listed by the Office of Environment and Heritage as an endangered ecological community.

Durie, a horticulturalist and landscape designer bought the block for $2.3m in 2016 after selling on Plateau Rd, Bilgola.

Members of the Avalon Preservation Association, who are objecting to Jamie Durie’s original development application to tear down 17 trees to build his new home. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Avalon Preservation Association’s Peter Mayman said it “would overwhelm its environmentally sensitive block” and could threaten “riparian and foreshore vegetation and wildlife corridors”.

Pittwater Natural Heritage Association said the development was out of character for the area. “We are concerned about the effect that the proposed development will have on canopy trees on the site, including spotted gums, part of an Endangered Ecological Community,” the association said.

Other objectors said the design was more in keeping with ritzy Palm Beach.

Durie’s development application states the proposed development would only “slightly reduce” the canopy of trees and would “not significantly impact” the biodiversity corridor.

He said he had planted “1518 native and endemic species both on and around the property”.

“We are passionate when it comes to creating a native habitat and as a qualified horticulturalist and (landscape architect)...we are well positioned to do so.”

When asked about the criticism he said he was “flexible”.