A Sydney planning panel has refused a 21-storey commercial mixed-use development in the city’s western suburbs, saying the relevant rail authority had yet to agree to the proposal.
Bathla Group, the prolific developer from Sydney’s west, lodged plans for the 82.9m office tower for a 1240-square-metre site on the outskirts of Blacktown’s centre in May this year.
The tower, at 30 First Avenue, Blacktown, was to include retail and recreation space, bar, lounge and function facilities, as well as about 12,000sq m of office space above six levels of basement parking for 155 vehicles.
With a capital investment calue of about $34 million, the development was sent to the Sydney Central City Planning Panel for approval, but not before Blacktown City Council recommended the proposal be refused.
The planning panel agreed unanimously, saying general terms of approval had not been given by Water NSW, the statutory government body responsible for supplying the state’s bulk water needs.
Further, the planning panel said “concurrence has not yet been provided from Sydney Trains as required” under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.
“Of particular note,” the panel said in a written decision, “…without the concurrence of the rail authority, the Panel considers that to do so, having regard to the location of the site and the circumstances of this development, would be improper and ill-advised; and very likely to result in a poor planning outcome.”
The refusal comes just weeks after the same planning panel agreed to allow Bathla’s plans for four apartment buildings each of six storeys to go ahead in the city’s western suburbs, saying a 300mm height overrun would have no detrimental impact.
In that case, Bathla had filed plans for 178 apartments in the four buildings on a 1.33ha site at 6 Alan Street in Box Hill, about 45km north-west of Sydney.
But the lift overruns took the development’s height to 21.3m—300mm higher than allowed under the Hills Growth Centre Precincts Plan.
Hills Shire Council supported the 1.43 per cent non-compliance, but with a construction value of $39.7 million, the development application also had to go before the Sydney Central City Planning Panel.
The panel voted unanimously to approve Bathla’s Clause 4.6 Variation request over height and allow the development to go ahead.
In a written decision the panel said the Universal Property Group (which also trades as Bathla) had shown that to fully comply with the Hills Local Environmental Plan over height was “unreasonable or unnecessary in the circumstances.”
“The proposal is considered to respond appropriately to the topography of the site and will result in an appropriate urban outcome,” the panel said.
“The proposed variations do not result in any adverse amenity impacts and will not result in a detrimental impact on the streetscape.”
Bathla’s plans call for 24 one-bedroom, 95 two-bedroom and 59 three-bedroom units on the irregularly-shaped block with a 48m frontage to Alan Street. Two basement levels will provide parking for 257 cars and 91 bicycles. Architectural plans are by Cottee Parker.
The approval is the second for Bathla in the same street.
In September Bathla won approval from the Hills Shire Council, for a $19-million, seven-storey residential tower at 1 Alan Street at Box Hill—about 50m away and on the other side of the street.
The start of that development has been deferred.
