Young v Randwick City Council [2010] NSWLEC 1345

Land and Environment Court of New South Wales

CITATION : Young v Randwick City Council [2010] NSWLEC 1345

APPLICANT Robert Young PARTIES : RESPONDENT Randwick City Council

FILE NUMBER(S) : 10752 of 2010

CORAM: Hussey C

KEY ISSUES: DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION :- Small parking area; safe and convenient maneouvre; streetscape impact.

LEGISLATION CITED: Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 Randwick Local Environmental Plan 1998

CASES CITED: Hamedami v Waverley Council [2004] NSWLEC 617

DATES OF HEARING: 8 December 2010

DATE OF JUDGMENT: 15 December 2010

APPLICANT Mr J Doyle (Barrister) AGENT Australian Town Planning Consultants 2 Pty Ltd LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES: RESPONDENT Mr C McFadzean (Solicitor) SOLICITOR Shaw Reynolds Bowen & Gerathy

JUDGMENT:

THE LAND AND ENVIRONMENT COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Hussey C

15 December 2010.

Appeal No 10752 of 2010 Young R v Randwick City Council

JUDGMENT Background. 1 This appeal was lodged against council's refusal of a development application for the provision of a small, angled parking space in the front setback area at 132 Paine Street, Maroubra. The issues identified by council are summarised as follows: - Inadequate area of the proposed parking space. - Inconvenient access and excessive manoeuvring requirement. - Streetscape impacts. - Off street parking requirements. - Pedestrian access. - Bus stop location. The site 2 The site is described as Lot B in DP 397542. It has a total area of 222.4 sq m and frontage of 5.865 m. The subject site contains the south-western half of a single storey semi-detached dwelling. This dwelling has a street setback of approximately 4.7 m. 3 The front yard area of the premises has been substantially paved and it contains some perimeter planting. There is an existing bus stop adjacent the front of the property. The proposal details 4 The proposal is depicted in Attachment AA and described as: * provision of a small parking space (2.3m wide x 5.1m long) within the front setback area, set at an angle of 300 to the front boundary (i.e requiring a car to divert 600 from the driveway's perpendicular approach to the front boundary from the street); * replacement of a front section of the car space (scaling to 3.15m) with turf cell; * construction of a driveway between the street and the property boundary. At the property boundary, the driveway is 3.5m wide and located hard up to the south-eastern boundary. The driveway then narrows to width of 3m at the lip to Paine Street; * removal of a brick pillar at the southern most comer of the site; * replacement of certain existing pavers surrounding the car space with a garden bed; and * relocation of a bus stop that is within the alignment of the proposed driveway to a point 2m to the north-west. Planning controls 5 The following planning controls are relevant: - Randwick LEP 1998; under which the site is within Zone No 2A (Residential A) and the driveway and parking space is ancillary to the dwelling and permissible with consent. The relevant zone objectives are: (a) to maintain the character of established residential areas, and (b) to enable redevelopment for low density housing forms, including dwelling houses, dual occupancy, semi-detached housing, and the like, where such development does not compromise the amenity of surrounding residential areas and is compatible with the dominant character of existing development. - Randwick LEP (Consolidation) – January 2010. The land remains in the 2A zone and the relevant objectives are: (b) to maintain the desirable attributes of established residential areas, and (c) to protect the amenity of existing residents . - Dwelling Houses and Attached Dual Occupancies DCP. - Parking DCP. - Australian Standard 2890.1:2004. The evidence 6 Detailed evidence was presented in the form of a joint expert report by: - Mr P O-Sullivan; Development engineer at Randwick Council. - Mr D Mooney; Senior urban planner at Randwick Council. - Ms E Marshall-McClelland; Consulting architect/traffic planner for the applicant. 7 Insofar as the proposal is permissible, the detailed assessment controls are contained in the parking and dwelling DCPs, which have been tabulated as follows. 8 The relevant criteria in the dwelling houses DCP is: DCP ref Issue Control Numeric Performance 1.3(2) Plan objectives an urban design aim is to promote environmental design standards that respect and enhance the character of existing neighbourhoods 4.1 Landscaped area 40% (minimum) 37.6% 4.1 Landscaping & Open Space (P1) The size and dimensions of landscaped areas suit the projected requirements of the dwelling occupants and accommodate outdoor recreation needs as well as providing space for service functions 4.7 Parking objectives to ensure on-site car parking and driveways are not visually obtrusive and do not detract from the appearance of dwellings of the local streetscape to provide convenient and safe car parking and access 4.7 Parking provision 1 space 1 space 4.7 Parking design (P1) conveniently and safely serve users (P1) enable the efficient use of car spaces and access ways, including adequate manoeuvrability for vehicles between the site and the street (P2) not dominate or detract from the appearance of the development and the local streetscape 4.7 Parking dimensions (S1) 5.5m x 2.5m 5.1m x 2.3m 4.7 Driveway width (S1) 3m maximum at property boundary and 3m minimum elsewhere 3.5m at property boundary. Elsewhere 3.0m-3.5m 4.7 Driveway setback (S1) 1m 0m 4.7 Car parking width (S2) 35% (maximum) of the site width 95%