The developer behind plans to build an employment hub in Brunswick Heads has strenuously refuted suggestions that the project is a Trojan horse for residential development.
The plan to build the mixed-use hub on a picturesque greenfield site at 66 The Saddle Road came before last week’s Council meeting, where it ultimately received preliminary, conditional approval.
However, during public access, the co-principal of the planning company hired to design the project faced concerted questioning about the motivation behind it.
Live/work spaces
The concerns centred on a large section of the proposed development that involves live/work spaces.
Mayor Michael Lyon told the meeting that Council had ‘received some interesting correspondence in the last 24 hours…’ that had made ‘assertions’ about the proposed development.
‘The concern would be that it’s de facto accommodation with the “work” component as a front,’ Cr Lyon said to the co-principal, Stephen Connelly.
‘The idea being that you create the residences, and then have a little bit of a workspace below. Do you have any response to that? That it’s a de facto residential development?’
But Mr Connelly strenuously denied the suggestions.
Uncool to make up up stories
‘It’s really uncool for people to be making up stories like that when it is just absolutely the opposite,’ he said.
‘So there’s no danger that this is a de facto residential development?’ Cr Lyon continued.
‘This is primarily a business and industrial lands development that has a live aspect that facilitates the industrial or business use?’
‘Absolutely,’ Mr Connelly said.
He said that the design of the live/work spaces would make it ‘impossible’ for someone who was not intimately involved in the business activities to live there.
He also said that anyone using the spaces would be constrained by the terms of the development consent, and the strata rules that would apply.
Huge profits from residential development
With housing at a premium in the Shire, developers and landlords stand to make huge profits from residential development.
Mr Connelly’s assurances appeared to satisfy Council that the developer of the proposed employment hub was not chasing these riches.
Council gave the project preliminary, conditional approval at the meeting.
This paves the way for the proposal to move to the next stage in the planning process, which is to get ‘gateway’ approval from the Department of Planning.
This step is required because the proposed developed involves large areas of the site being rezoned from RU2 rural landscape to business and industrial.
The hub, which includes 6.5 hectares of built areas, would include separate precincts, one for a business park, another for a ‘traditional industrial precinct’, and a larger live/work area.
The proposal does not specify the number or exact type of buildings to be included in the development.
However, it indicates that the floor space ratio for the areas set aside for employment land would be 0.9:1, which is the ratio that typically applies in the Byron Arts and Industry Estate.
11.5m height limit
There will also be a height limit of 11.5m for three of the precincts, well above the 9m height limit that applies across most of the Shire.
Significant parts of the broader site would also be regenerated to include rainforest, wet eucalypt forest, and forested wetlands.
All publicly available planning documents in relation to the project can be viewed in the agenda of last week’s Council meeting.
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