Paul Bibby
Plans for a mixed use development at the southern end of Jonson Street, Byron Bay have been reintroduced by the developer 10 months after being summarily rejected by the Joint Regional Planning Panel.
Developer Graham Dunn has reduced the proposed building at 139 Jonson Street from four storeys to three in a bid to gain approval for his plans, which were originally lodged with Byron Council back in September 2017.
The draft plan is now open for public viewing on the projects website.
The original incarnation of the plan drew strong opposition from residents, who argued that it represented a significant overdevelopment of the site and one which, if approved, would set a dangerous precedent for the rest of Jonson Street and Byron Bay more broadly.
Mr Dunn said he and the others working on the project had spent the past nine months addressing the issue of the fourth storey and other elements of the design.
‘I believe we have now resolved the issues raised and so we are ready to share our new draft plans,’ Mr Dunn said.
Mr Dunn said the other major change to the proposal was the loss of short-term accommodation, with 34 permanent residential homes replacing a mix of permanent and serviced apartments that would have allowed for some holiday letting.
Under the new plan, the 34 permanent homes would be located on the two upper levels, while the ground level would be home to a cafe or restaurant as well as commercial and retail operations.
Two basement carparks would provide parking for 125 cars, including six accessible spaces and two with electric car charging stations.
‘At the core of the design is and alternative planting modes,’ said project architect Jade Myers.
‘Vine walls, podium planters, three storey green walls, deep soil and streetscape planting all with native and endemic species.’
Another developer trying to turn Byron into the Gold Coast for the benefit of him and his investor$. When are people going to realise that the reason this area is nice is because it isn’t the Gold Coast. Another self centred greedy human being.
You can polish a turd but it’s still a turd.
The southern end of Jonson Street? Isn’t that where the Butler Street Bypass crosses the railway line and comes in at the southern end of Jonson Street. Won’t there be traffic congestion?
“Two basement carparks would provide parking for 125 cars, …” there is an extra 125 cars that will hit Jonson Street daily.
This is so Uggly!!
They really have no sensitivity to dare to propose this kind of building!
Yes you are right, it is the Gold Coast invasion!
The overall design is not too bad except the actual living /loungeroom areas are very small and the kitchens look inadequate.
The bedsitters are a really terrible design with no separation at all; the bed is in the kitchen with no actual living area. I think they need redesigning.
The apartments will be noisy right on the bypass roundabout, and I just wonder if they will actually be affordable for lower income residents.
At least its an attempt to satisfy the BRG demands, however we all weep at the desecration of our little town.
It could be worse! I love how Byron is now changing into a high capacity inner city residential area, say good by to ” slow down, chill out, relax”.
Byron Bay should learn from Bangalow, where building these monstrosities would be unthinkable.
Anything would be better than whats there now!
As one apartment owner said on the 4 Corners programme revealing the shonky building practices in apartment and unit development…
“Run…Run as fast as you can and don’t look back…anything over 2 stories..the developer and builder do not need building indemnity insurance and hence the new owner is left High and Dry if there are defects that need to be rectified.
Thus anybody buying into these types of developments would have to be very very wary and have a good hard think before they start to hand over money.
In respect to this developer and their development…they knew all along that the 4th story development would not get through…so they had a Plan B three story redevelopment just sitting in the wings waiting to go…so they sat on their hands for 10 months…bide their time and then resubmitted again.
The overdevelopement of this area will kill it… the construction and the bypass and the building on the corner, ….come on. !!!!
At last a clean up of the most ugly corner in Byron Bay.
The building is ugly. We need nice buildings to make Byronbay more attractive.
How do you stop heavy rain/flood water filling those underground car parks? Whatever happened to planned retreat? The centre of Byron is a reclaimed swamp and fills up whenever there’s a big dump. Why would any sensible person be spending millions building on coastal flood plains? The existing beach houses suggest our predecessors thought about the big storms and didn’t invest so much in ephemeral things like show homes and lavish furnishings, when the roof is likely to blow off!
Our planning processes are failing us all.
It is about time people realised that the only real reason for ” gentrification” is to give reason and usage for the overdeveloped mining in this country. The roads, redevelopment of the little existing old buildings (only facdes remain). The greed is in the union.