Paul Bibby
A property developer who unsuccessfully applied to build two large houses on a block in Brunswick Heads is now seeking to build four houses on the same property.
Sasha Hopkins had his Development Application (DA) for two five-bedroom houses at 16 Short Street rejected by Byron Council at its February meeting.
The decision was largely based on the fact that the proposal would overshadow the neighbouring property at number 14, where approval for a dual occupancy had already been granted.
It also exceeded the maximum building height plane for the site.
However, Mr Hopkins has now submitted another development application to build four two-storey houses, each with its own swimming pool on the site.
The project, which has an estimated value of $1.58m, would include eight parking spaces and a total of 12 bedrooms – three for each house.
The statement of environmental effects contained within the new DA states that it is ‘consistent with the strategic planning provisions and permissible uses of the site’.
‘The design, siting, scale, bulk and character of the new dwellings is considered reasonable having regard to the relevant provisions of Council’s DCP (development control plan).
However, it appears the new proposal would also create overshadowing issues for neighbouring properties, and would exceed maximum building height plane rules.
The owner of the neighbouring property, George Stinson, said the overshadowing and building height plane issues were ‘worse than the previous DA’.
‘There’s also no pedestrian access to Short St … and no parking or garbage pickup,’ Mr Stinson said.
‘We were advised by a BSC planner that a 1200mm wide pedestrian access is a non-negotiable requirement,’ he said.
The DA has just gone on public exhibition, with submissions closing on June 5.
Mr Hopkins declined to comment when contacted by The Echo.
I suggest we tell this lot, and others like them, to take their money entitled attitude and go back to where they came from. The residents of Byron Bay, Brunswick Heads and other villages around here are the ones that are paying a significant price and loss of amenity while these people bank roll their wealth at our loss.
What we now have are industrial parks, being the former residential towns and villages like Byron and Brunswick. Byron Bay and the village of Brunswick Heads have never had a tourist development plan that successfully managed and controlled tourism and kept it at a manageable level. To date it’s been open slather on the residents of our once beautiful suburbs. Hopefully Council will look at putting together a tourist plan to rein in this out of control industry that is burying our towns.
We’ve been loved to death and now is the time to instigate control over the greed and plundering of our communities. I’m well and truly over these people coming here, many with their snooty attitude and looking down their noses at the local people here, while there ruining everything they touch and supposedly came to enjoy. Get real you greedy lot and bugger off. Hopefully ‘the times they are changing’.
When I bought my property in Brunswick Heads I went to council to inquire what was permissible to build. I was told the village is zoned low density and you can’t build on more that 50% of the property. I don’t understand how some of the developments going on, which clearly cover more than half the property, have been allowed.
And what happened to his argument to council in his original DA proposal that he was just building a house for his mother on the site?
Money to appeal to the higher courts and the dodgy NSW state government. I’m worried about what is planned for kickstarting the economy. Given the fact we have a neo-liberal government I can guess- less regulations, lower taxes for business, cuts to welfare and Medicare and then Joe Hockey making a cameo appearance telling us to get over it and get a better job.
I wish some people in the shire would focus on these real problems instead of 5G, vaccines and a flat earth. Unfortunately that’s the world we live in.
Developers are like grasshoppers – they hop in over night, clean up everything & hop off again leaving a mess.
If you are concerned about this development then please put in a submission. Numbers count. We need to get this decided by a meeting of the Council, not by a staff member behind closed doors under “delegated authority”.
The DA number is 10.2020.170.1. You can google council’s Byron DA Tracker website and search for it there. Be aware though, the plans will show a shonky shadow diagram. The diagram shows 5 metres of overshadowing on the block next door when it is actually 14.5 metres at least. The applicant admitted this to council but it was put up anyway. There is now a correct version hidden away, last among the thirteen other files, but the misleading plan is still the only one in the main plans. Good eh?