Ettalong Beach: New shop top housing plans for 23 apartments

Fresh plans for a five storey retail/apartment complex in Ettalong Beach have been revealed. It comes as rejected plans for shop top housing down the road make a return.

A five storey shop top housing development is planned for the corner of Memorial Ave and Ocean View Rd in Ettalong Beach.

The plans have been lodged with Central Coast Council for 273-275 Ocean View Rd, adjacent to the Ettalong Diggers/Mantra Resort carpark, and are on public exhibition.

Baruhoy Investment Pty Limited is proposing to partly demolish the current building at the site to make way for a five storey shop top housing development.

The development would include ground floor retail floor space, 23 residential units and basement vehicle parking for 36 vehicles. There will also be a roof top terrace area.

The site on Ocean View Rd Ettalong Beach where a five storey shop top housing development is planned.

The applicant has asked council for exemptions to both the floor space ratio and height, which do not comply with the council’s local centre zoning rules. The height variation is to cater for the lift overrun.

The plans state that the non compliance issues are justified due to the “design merit and key location of the proposed development”, and “the imperative to lift the design standard of what has traditionally been seen as the ‘centre’ of the Ettalong Beach village centre”.

Plans say the development will improve the social and economic welfare of the local community.

Artists impression of the development.

It will “create a better environment by substantially improving the liveability and amenity of the locality by activating the Ocean View Road and Ferry Road frontages and the provision of good quality accommodation space that encourages people to live within the village centre precinct as well as in the surrounding urban catchment”.

“The proposal will improve the architectural standard of the locality and compliment future development in the precinct. It will also offset the poor built quality of the adjacent retail/residential development,” the plans state.

Current image of the site on Ocean View Rd.

Plans pointed to current developments underway in the area including the five storey residential complex at 241 Ocean View Rd with 54 apartments along with the proposed five storey 84 room hotel at 218 Memorial Ave.

The new plans emerge as the applicant for a rejected development at 302-208 Ocean View Rd calls for a review of the decision made by the Central Coast Local Planning Panel in October 2021.

The $5.4m development includes three storey shop top housing with ground floor retail and 12 units. The panel refused the plans due to lack of compliance in areas of solar access, inconsistent floor to ceiling levels and a lack of information.

The shop top housing development at 302-306 Ocean View Drive was rejected in October 2021.

When it came before the panel in 2021, architect Matthew Wales spoke on behalf of the applicant KHMS Corp Pty Limited saying the DA had been under assessment for over 320 days with “three separate council planners and numerous iterations to the plans to satisfy concerns council has raised”.

He said that variations to local planing rules were minor and that “the application is of extremely high quality and appropriate for the site in the context of the wider Ettalong precinct”.