Amended plans show stepping back and shadowing
Central Coast Council has announced a "renotification period" for a proposal for a five-storey mixed-use building at 275 Ocean View Rd, on the corner of Memorial Ave, Ettalong.
New material currently on exhibition consists of amended plans and compliance data, 30 sheets in all.
The comment period will end on November 4.
According to the Council website, the application was initially lodged on February 8. However many of the design documents were registered prior to that date.
When the DA was first put on public exhibition, it attracted more than the 10 submissions required to refer it to the Local Planning Panel.
Most of the submissions said the building was an over-development which would help to destroy the "village" character of Ettalong Beach, cause problems with parking and traffic congestion and be of little or no benefit to the community.
As the application was originally lodged before "new" planning provisions came into effect on August 1, it will be assessed under the previous "Gosford" planning standards.
In the original applications, which has not been amended or reissued, it was noted that, at a pre-lodgement meeting with council staff held on September 21 last year, the applicant was informed that "a Clause 4.6 exception to development standards will be required for the height and floor space ratio exceedances".
"It is unlikely that Council officers or the Local Planning Panel as the determining authority will support the significant exceedance of the floor space ratio standard."
At the meeting, council staff also expressed concern at the likelihood of flooding and "careful consideration of changing levels between the forecourt and the ground floor tenancies to address flooding will be required; and proposed ground floor use should be business or retail (which includes food and drink) to ensure active frontages".
The main and only significant change from the original drawings appear to be stepping back the upper floors on the Ocean View Rd elevation.
This seems to have mainly been done to alleviate council concerns at non compliance with the "envelope" requirements.
The published drawings document this change in some detail.
Despite of this "stepping back", the documents show the gross floor area as having reduced by only 4.2 square metres from 2246 to 2241.8.
This means that the floor space ratio remains unchanged, and non-compliant, at 2.2:1, where the requirement is a maximum of 2:1.
The number of apartments has also remained the same at 23, made up of four three-bedroom units, 13 two-bedroom units and six one-bedroom units.
The height of the building is unchanged with a number of roof components exceeding the 17 metre height limit.
The lift overrun is 3.245 metres over.
Of the 30 sheets of "amended drawings", 13 are concerned with shadowing and solar access.
Included amongst these are a large number of panoramic "solar studies" encompassing most of Ettalong Beach.
It is unclear why this has occurred, given a recent council assessment backed by a Local Planning Panel decision in the case of 42 South St, Umina, was made on the basis that the absence of direct sunlight to neighbouring properties for two months a year did not contravene "amenity" requirements of the planning provisions.
SOURCE:
DA Tracker, 14 Oct 2022
DA146/2022, Central Coast Council