Belrose: Plans rejected for $44m apartment block and shops on old library site
Planning officials have a made a decision on a controversial $44m plan to redevelop the community eyesore that was the old Belrose library.
Manly
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Plans for a controversial $44 million redevelopment of a dilapidated public library site have been thrown out by planning authorities because it was too big and too high.
Developer, Platinum Property Advisers, wanted to build a “shop top” project which included 51 apartments, a gym, shops, eateries and a car wash on the abandoned Belrose Library block.
But an independent NSW Government palling panel has rejected the proposal because it was a “substantial overdevelopment of the site”.
The Sydney North Planning Panel also said in its written decision that the “Belrose Village Square” development was out of character with the neighbourhood.
It said that the proposed shop top housing failed to demonstrate “design quality” in relation to visual privacy, apartment size and layout, parking, ceiling heights, landscaping and energy efficiency.
The developer also wanted to raise the height of the building more than three metres above the current permissible level. The maximum building height for the site, under the Warringah Local Environment Plan 2011, is 8.5m, but the developer wanted to increase the height of part of the project to more than 12m.
“The panel formed the view that the proposal’s breach of planning controls, its design and the impacts arising from those breaches, were indicative of a substantial overdevelopment of the site,” the panel wrote.
Community opposition to the project was substantial. The panel said of the 134 written submissions received, 114 were opposed to the plans.
A nearby resident, John Watt, complained that the three above-ground levels on Lockwood Ave appeared to be much higher than neighbouring properties and “out of synch with the neighbourhood”.
“The whole development appears to take up almost all of the site, surely this is not allowed?,” Mr Watt asked.
The developer has lodged an appeal in the Land and Environment Court. The planning panel wrote that a redesign was already underway.
A consultant’s report contained in the DA documents said that a central square in the development would have contributed to the “village atmosphere”.
“When combined with the proposal’s other public places including landscape paths, arcade and retail alcoves, 27pc of the site is dedicated to public benefit,” the report said.
It also said that the design and height fitted in with its neighbours, the Glen Street Theatre and Glenrose shopping centre.”
Northern Beaches Council sold the 5,332 sqm block in 2017 to help raise money to go towards a more modern library nearby as well as funding the Glen St Cultural Hub, including a revitalised Glen Street Theatre.
Platinum Property has been contacted for comment.