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A majority of Byron councillors have voted against reducing height limits at Wategos Beach, a change that was intended to curb the ongoing overdevelopment of the iconic location.
Council staff had proposed that the maximum building height at Wategos be reduced from nine to eight metres as part of its regular ‘housekeeping’ in relation to local planning rules.
They suggested the amendment after meeting with the Wategos Progress Association, which supported the move.
‘Wategos is the most eastern residential area within Australia, is surrounded by a State Conservation Area, and has steep topography,’ staff said in a report to last week’s Council meeting, which advocated for the reduction.
‘To minimise the impact of the built form on the environment and visual/public realm, it is proposed to reduce the height limit in this area from 9m to 8m’.
A short walk around the streets at Wategos reveals the extent of the overdevelopment at the spot.
Property owners are not only building right up to, and in some cases over, the current height limit, they are also excavating back into the hillside to increase the size of their houses.
‘They are massive mansions – they’re huge’, said Labor councillor Asren Pugh, who spoke in favour of the height reduction.
‘Because of the amount of money that’s being spent on these houses there, our planning rules are not up to scratch to deal with them’.
‘So you’re getting these massive houses that are not appropriate to the site, they’re not appropriate for our Shire.’
But Mayor Michael Lyon disagreed, saying that he ‘couldn’t see the logic’ of reducing the height limit for one part of the Shire.
‘I know we’ve had some issues with people trying to exceed the height limit, but that to me is a separate issue to reducing the height limit for the whole of Wategos.
‘I don’t see that I would ever support that [Wategos amendment] when the entire Shire’s at nine metres, and we’re talking about moving just this area to eight metres.’
Cr Lyon later indicated that he was ‘open to having a conversation’ about addressing the issues at Wategos, but that it was not appropriate to do so as part of the housekeeping amendment process.
Won’t make a difference: Cr Swivel
Cr Lyon’s position was supported by Councillor Mark Swivel (Independent) who said he did not think reducing height limits would make any difference.
Councillor Peter Westheimer (Independent) also backed the mayor’s stance, arguing that, given the pressure Council was under from the Department of Planning over meeting its development targets, it was the wrong time to be ‘fiddling with height limits and making the possibility of extra housing stock more difficult’.
Councillors who voted against reducing height limits in the Shire were Cr Lyon, Cr Swivel, Cr Wetsheimer, Cr Sama Balson, and Cr Alan Hunter.
They agreed to bring the matter to a future councillor workshop for further discussion.
However, that workshop is unlikely to take place until next year.
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