Dee Why, Pittwater Rd: Nine-storey ‘car free’ boarding house in busy town centre gets nod from planners
A nine-storey boarding house will be built in the busiest town centre on the northern beaches.
Manly
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A nine-storey boarding house will be built in the heart of the busiest town centre on the northern beaches.
The development, on a narrow site on Pittwater Rd at Dee Why, will have 19 rented rooms — to house up to 40 tenants — and a manager’s flat, but no room for car parking.
Its owner will also lease out three commercial offices and a cafe on the ground floor, at 882A Pittwater Rd.
An existing one-storey building, squeezed between a seven-storey ‘shop top’ apartment block and the 9-storey Lighthouse Meriton apartment complex, will be demolished.
Before it was referred to the independent Northern Beaches Local Planning Panel for adjudication, the development application (DA) to the council for the $4.3 million building attracted submissions from 29 people opposed to the project.
A major concern was the lack of parking in what council planning officials described as
a “car free” development.
One objector, who asked not to identified, told the council that the “developers are delusional if they believe that the boarding house tenants will not own cars”.
Other issues highlighted by objectors included the location of the boarding house, or affordable rental housing units, at a busy B-Line bus stop.
Another objector told the council that the “all it does is add to Dee Why town centre being overcrowded and people being subject to despicable living conditions as if we were a slum”.
“If this DA was approved, it could set a precedent for the visual murder of Dee Why’s current, albeit already battled, architectural charm.
“Having a boarding house literally in front of an important bus stop to me is like an invitation for trouble.”
Dana Boudaghian wrote that “this development is trying to cram in as many people as it can into a very small area”.
In its Assessment report, in which the council described the site location as “within the busiest town centre on the Northern Beaches”, it suggested the planning panel approve the DA.
It found that the site was “physically not capable of providing an access driveway or car/motorcycle parking”.
“The site has been isolated by all of the developments around it, which is prejudicial to its ability to be developed in a conventional manner (i.e. with basement car parking),” the report stated.
It also stated that given the site’s “minimal size and street presence, it is considered that the proposal is appropriate, visually interesting and complementary to the broader Dee Why Town Centre”.
“In the absence of any unreasonable amenity impacts caused to neighbours, the overall quality of the architecture and its contribution to the town centre, and the demonstrable need for affordable and diverse housing in Australia, but Sydney in particular, this report concludes that the proposal is of a positive social impact.”
The owner of the site has been contacted for comment.
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