Iris Capital Pty Ltd v Council of the City of Sydney [2021] NSWLEC 1148

Land and Environment Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Iris Capital Pty Ltd v Council of the City of Sydney [2021] NSWLEC 1148 Hearing dates: Conciliation conference on 27 January 2021, 10, 17 and 24 February 2021 Date of orders: 25 March 2021 Decision date: 25 March 2021 Jurisdiction: Class 1 Before: Clay AC Decision: Refer to orders at [10] Catchwords: DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION – appeal against two conditions of consent – two adjoining pub premises – deletion of conditions requiring no internal access between the premises – plans of management – conciliation – agreement between the parties – orders Legislation Cited: Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 Land and Environment Court Act 1979 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Iris Capital Pty Ltd (Applicant) Council of the City of Sydney (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: A Whealy/R McCann (Solicitors) (Applicant) A Singh (Solicitor) (Respondent)

Solicitors: Mills Oakley (Applicant) Council of the City of Sydney (Respondent) File Number(s): 2020/284992 Publication restriction: Nil

Judgment 1. This is an appeal pursuant to s 8.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) against the imposition of two conditions of the development consent granted on 28 May 2020 (consent) to development application No DA/2019/1184 for alterations and additions to two pubs known as the Columbian Hotel and the Gaslight Inn which are adjoining at 117-125 Oxford Street and 278 Crown Street Sydney respectively. 2. The development application included an interconnecting door between the two pubs. The appeal was limited objection to the imposition of two conditions of consent – condition 2(c) which required the deletion of an interconnecting door, and condition 6(a)(iv) which made reference to the interconnecting door. 3. On 27 January 2021, I presided over a conciliation conference between the parties pursuant to s 34(1) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (Court Act). At the conciliation conference, the parties reached an agreement in principle as to the terms of a decision in the proceedings that would be acceptable to the parties. 4. The proposed decision was to grant leave to amend the development application, rely upon amended and updated plans of management for the pubs and to grant development consent with the interconnecting door reinstated and some consequential changes to the conditions. 5. It took some time to prepare the necessary documents to give effect to the agreement and the conciliation continued on 10, 17 and 24 February 2021. 6. On 24 February 2021, the parties lodged an agreement pursuant to s 34 of the Court Act giving effect to the agreement in principle, together with the supporting documents. 7. The amendments to the plans, together with additional material provided by the Applicant to the Council addressed the Council's contentions concerning the interconnection between the hotels. 8. Pursuant to s 34(3) of the Court Act, I must dispose of the proceedings in accordance with the parties' agreement if the proposed decision the subject of the agreement is a decision that the Court could have made in the proper exercise of its functions. 9. The parties' agreement involves the Court exercising the function under s 4.16 of the EP&A Act to grant development consent. The appeal only concerns conditions of consent relating to the interconnecting door and that is the only issue to which the parties have directed their attention, as has the Court. The parties observe that the Council has obviously granted the development consent the subject of the appeal, that there was no question that it had jurisdiction so to do, and there are no jurisdictional barriers to the grant by the Court of development consent in the amended form. 10. I make the following orders: 1. The Applicant is granted leave to rely on the following documents: 1. Amended architectural plans prepared by Squillace listed in the below table: Drawing Number Drawing Name Date DA-050 Issue C Existing & Demolition Ground Floor Plan 18 November 2020 DA-100 Issue C Proposed Ground Floor Plan 18 November 2020