Jamie Durie’s waterfront mansion is downsized after local opposition
TV gardner Jamie Durie has reduced plans for his waterfront dream home, following community opposition lodged with Northern Beaches Council.
NSW
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Celebrity gardener Jamie Durie has stripped back plans for his six-storey waterfront dream home to remove just two trees, down from 17.
The new plans, which include four bedrooms instead of six and a home that now wraps around precious trees, follow community opposition lodged with Durie’s local Northern Beaches Council.
The National Tree Day ambassador said he had spent another $200,000 on redesigns, which include a courtyard around one of the spotted gums in the area, which has been designated of special significance and listed by the Office of Environment and Heritage as an endangered ecological community.
“I don’t think you can build anywhere in Sydney and not have people lodging objections,” the former Manpower stripper said. “We hear the neighbours, we hear the community.”
He said the new home, which will replace the original 1960s four-bedroom cottage on the sloping Pittwater block in posh Avalon, had a much smaller footprint than originally planned. “We have responded to all of council’s submissions and we think this new design is far superior.”
Durie, a horticulturalist and landscape designer, bought the Riverview Rd block for $2.3m in 2016 after selling on Plateau Rd, Bilgola, and plans to spend about $3m redeveloping it.
He revealed that he had used non-invasive and non-destructive root mapping, which involved high-pressure water jets digging down 2m and exposing the roots.
The mapping showed the new building would impede no roots. The only trees going are those suffering from borer or dieback.
After initially being hit with 35 submissions to council opposing the original plan, there are currently just four, including two in favour.
One in favour is from a neighbour who wrote to council: “I think it will look quite magnificent. The owner of the property is a world-renowned landscape designer. I’d lay odds the finished product will look spectacular.”
Northern Beaches Council has not yet reported.
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