Freeman v Manly Council [2015] NSWLEC 1163

Land and Environment Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Freeman v Manly Council [2015] NSWLEC 1163 Hearing dates: 12 May 2015 Date of orders: 19 May 2015 Decision date: 19 May 2015 Jurisdiction: Class 1 Before: Moore SC Decision: See orders at (18). Catchwords: MODIFICATION APPLICATION: substantially the same as the originally approved development; boarding house; leave granted to amend; converting one proposed residence to an additional boarding room; parking; no issues pressed by Council after amendment of proposal; consideration of objections; no basis to refuse amended modification proposal Cases Cited: Moto Projects (No 2) Pty Limited v North Sydney Council [1999] NSWLEC 280; (1999) 106 LGERA 298 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Nick Freeman (Applicant) Manly Council (Respondent) Representation: Counsel Mr M Staunton, barrister (Applicant) Mr A Seton, solicitor (Respondent)

Solicitors N/A (Applicant) Marsdens Law Group (Respondent) File Number(s): 10944 of 2014

Judgment

Introduction 1. SENIOR COMMISSIONER: Parkview Road runs to the north from its intersection with Sydney Road near the top of the hill where Sydney Road descends to the Manly Village. On the high side of the intersection of Parkview Road and Sydney Road, there is a single dwelling. The applicant has development consent to demolish the dwelling and, in its place, erect a boarding house with 21 boarding rooms (including a manager's residence) and, on top of this structure, two residential apartments each of which would have two bedrooms. The development consent also encompasses the provision of 11 parking spaces, some of which are allocated to the boarding house and some to the approved apartments. 2. A modification application has been made direct to the Court to modify the proposal in a number of respects. The application was made direct to the Court as the original development consent now sought to be modified was granted by the Court in earlier proceedings. 3. The modification application has, as its major element, a proposal to convert the two apartments on the uppermost level into three single bedroom apartments. This modification would involve an increase in the floor space attributable to the residential apartment element of the development and would take it from being compliant with the relevant floor space ratio controls to being non-compliant. 4. The modification application also proposed changes to a number of other less contentious matters including relating to development contributions and application fees payable to Manly Council (the Council).