Shelley Lane Pty Limited v Marrickville Council [2012] NSWLEC 1310

Land and Environment Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Shelley Lane Pty Limited v Marrickville Council [2012] NSWLEC 1310 Hearing dates: 3,4 October 2012 Decision date: 06 November 2012 Jurisdiction: Class 1 Before: Brown C Decision: 1. The appeal is dismissed. 2. Application No. DA201200214 for the conversion of an existing industrial building into a residential flat building at the corner of Shelley Lane and Empire Lane Marrickville is refused. 3. The exhibits are returned with the exception of exhibits 3, 5 and C. Catchwords: DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION: conversion of an existing industrial building into a three level residential flat building -impact on the heritage significance of the building - inconsistency with context, scale, built form and density in the area - inadequate cross ventilation - inadequate floor area for some units Legislation Cited: Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 Marrickville Local Environmental Plan 2011 State Environmental Planning Policy No. 65 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Shelley Lane Pty Limited (Applicant) Marrickville Council (Respondent) Representation: Mr M Staunton, barrister (Applicant) Mr G Christmas, solicitor (Respondent) Landerer and Company (Applicant) Apex Law (Respondent) File Number(s): 10770 of 2012

Judgment 1COMMISSIONER: This is an appeal against the refusal of Application No. DA201200214 (the 2012 DA) for the adaptive reuse of an existing industrial building into a three level residential flat building containing 17 dwellings (as amended from 18 units during the hearing) and off street car parking for 9 vehicles located within the building at the corner of Shelleys Lane and Empire Lane, Marrickville (the site). The strata subdivision of the proposed development is also proposed. The 2012 DA was lodged with the council on 14 June 2012. 2This appeal, including all evidence, was heard concurrently with a separate appeal for a similar development on the same site (Shelley Lane Pty Limited v Marrickville Council, Appeal No 104770 of 2012). 3The contentions raised by the council in this appeal are: * unacceptable impact on the heritage significance of the building, * the proposed conversion is inconsistent with context, scale, built form and density in the area, * inadequate cross ventilation, and * inadequate mix and floor area for some units. 4A number of residents provided evidence on the site inspection and the Court was provided with the correspondence from the advertising of the development application by the council. The matters raised by local residents that were not raised by the council in their contentions are: * increased traffic with unacceptable impacts on pedestrian safety and parking, * increased difficulty of pedestrian and vehicular access to existing residential properties, * loss of privacy, * overshadowing, * construction impacts, and * precedent.