Proposed Palm Beach flats a threat to endangered species, planning officials say
Swish flats planned for one of Sydney’s poshest suburbs could be a threat to an endangered species, planning officials have been told.
Manly
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Plans for a $6 million ‘shop top’ apartment block in one of Sydney’s swishiest suburbs have been knocked back amid fears its construction would damage endangered undersea plant life.
And planning officials rejected the project — with 11 units and five shops — on the main road into Palm Beach because the three-storey building was an overdevelopment of the site.
Northern Beaches Council received more than 60 public submissions opposed to the demolition and redevelopment of an existing shop top apartment complex, built on the site of a former petrol station, on the corner of Barrenjoey and Iluka roads.
Locals reckoned the size of the building would take away from the village atmosphere in that “historic” part of Palm Beach.
Due to the number of submissions, the development application (DA) was passed to the independent Northern Beaches Local Planning Panel for a decision.
The developer has appealed, in the NSW Land and Environment Court, the council’s deemed refusal of the redevelopment.
In its assessment report, the council outlined concerns that the redevelopment of the land, which housed a service station for 40 years, may release harmful contaminants into nearby Pittwater.
There is a population of endangered Posidonia Australis seagrass along Snapperman Beach.
“Council’s contamination officers are not satisfied with the extent of contamination assessment carried out by the applicant, and so council cannot be satisfied that the development would not have a harmful impact to an endangered species,” its report stated.
The council also found that the building was “simply too big for the site”, including being too high, and was of a “scale that is incongruent with the streetscape and Palm Beach locality.”
At a meeting of the planning panel, secretary of the Palm Beach and Whale Beach Association, Robert McKinnon, said the proposed apartment block was “another example of overdevelopment”.
He told the panel there was provision for 60 people to live in a block that was slightly less in size than two average local residential blocks.
“This building is at odds with the character of the area,” Mr McKinnon said. “It bears little relationship to others in this historic precinct of Palm Beach.
“This development needs to be significantly scaled back and reconfigured.”
A resident of a neighbouring apartment block in Iluka Rd, Aleksander Rzadkowski, told the panel that the proposed development would block his view of Pittwater and affect his enjoyment of his apartment.
Another neighbour, Lance Doyle, said the proposed apartment block would overshadow and overlook existing apartments in Iluka Rd.
The four-memer panel voted unanimously to reject the DA.
Attempts have been made to contact the DA applicant, Forest Apartments Pty Ltd, for comment.
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