In 2020 Adam Mangleson from Chincogan Real Estate applied to develop the 1,075m2 site at 8 Kumbellin Glen, Ocean Shores, with seven units. This drew around 20 objections from local residents who said that this was an overdevelopment of the site, which is in a low-density zoned area.
The staff recommended that the Council approve six units and ultimately the DA was approved by councillors, with conditions, for five units. However, rather than meeting the conditions set out by the previous Council for the five units, Mr Magleson has now submitted a new DA for six units and told The Echo that at five units the project was ‘not viable’.
‘I believe there is a need for these two-bedroom homes and the difference between the two DAs is very minor, there is just one more unit.’
Over height limits
Speaking to The Echo local residents have said there are a number of issues with the DA as well as the overdevelopment of the site.
‘We all agree we need more housing, but it needs to be on an appropriate land size,’ said local resident Gulcin Cribb.
‘The most important things are that at nine metres it exceeds the height limit and it is in a low-density zoned area. If this is approved it will set a precedent because if this is allowed to go ahead it will open the floodgates for development on these small, inappropriately sized parcels of land. By putting five to six units on that small piece of land you are exceeding the zoning and creating a building that is out of character with the rest of the area.’
Another neighbour, John Walters, explained that ‘The development is planned to be three storeys, and nine metres high, even though the street is classified as “low density residential”. Essentially it will be like building a block of flats where currently there is a single level house.
‘The developer could easily build two or three dwellings of two storey height at 8 Kumbellin Glen, which would be far more preferable. The current proposal is simply overdevelopment and clearly profit driven.’
David Dvash, who is also a local resident, agrees, pointing out that the location for the development is at the junction of three streets and that Goondooloo Drive, which Kumbellin Glen feeds into, is very steep and has a lot of fast cars driving down it.
‘Goondooloo Drive is a very steep slope. The proposed DA is at the bottom where I’ve seen kids having to race to cross the street because there is a problem of line of sight – we’ve seen people running for their life, dogs run over, it is unsafe,’ he told The Echo.
Car parking spaces
Residents said that the overdevelopment of the site means that there will be increase of street parking.
‘It is a very small culdesac with at times 12 cars parked on the street. Even the rubbish truck has trouble turning in this street,’ explained Ms Cribbs.
‘According to the Australia census, every house on average has two cars. At six units that is at least 12 extra cars in the street.’
Mr Mangleson has told The Echo that he has supplied one car park per dwelling, plus an extra three car parks on site [totalling nine], which provides one extra car park beyond the required number. He said that extra cars can park on the other street as this is a corner block.
Ocean Shores Shopping Centre is only 200m from the site so that ‘reduces the need for a car,’ he explained.
‘This property is at the base of the hill and it only very slightly breaches the height limit’.
Housing diversity
‘There has been a lack of housing diversity in this area that has added to the housing crisis. For over 40 years there have been no two-bedroom developments in Byron Shire that I can see.
‘The footprint of this development is on par with a duplex. By bulk and scale it is very comparable with the neighbourhood, it is just a better use of the square metreage of the space within,’ he said.
Byron Shire Councillor Duncan Dey is seeking to bring this DA to Council.
In Cr Dey’s Notice of Motion (NoM) he states that ‘Objectors say it [the DA] exceeds building height planes and does not adequately deal with parking. The project being on a T-intersection means that parking not contained on the 1075m2 of the allotment will likely be in front of neighbours’.
Cr Dey told The Echo that ‘What we should be doing is identifying areas for medium and high density, and they should be zoned strategically so that everybody knows ahead of time what is likely to be developed in that area. Rather than the current model that responds to one landholders desires to make a profit’.
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