The much-debated redevelopment of the Bangalow Hotel has been given the green light by Byron Council after the owners of the pub agreed to amend the size and location of their new pokie room.
Hackles were raised across Bangalow last month when the owners of the famous venue – the Mooney family – put forward plans for a $13 million makeover of the iconic venue.
The plans included a significant demolition and rebuild of the internal ground floor area, including removal of the old timber bar, several walls, bathrooms and part of the floor section.
Pokies objections
An area in the western part of the venue which not so long ago hosted live music and other community-focused events, was to become a large, separated gaming room with 20 poker machines and direct access from Bangalow’s main street.
With dozens of locals strongly objecting to the proposal, especially the new pokie room, councillors asked the owners to submit an amended development application (DA).
They came back with a modified floor plan, and legal advice indicating that any attempt to impose further changes would be unlawful and treated as such.
Suffice to say the revised application was swiftly and unanimously approved.
The amended plans can best be described as a compromise.
The pokie room will remain on the first floor of the pub but has been reduced in size and it is no longer accessible from the street or directly visible to the public.
This has allowed for a separate ‘multipurpose space’ to be retained in the pub for live music and other community-focused uses.
The president of the Bangalow Community Association, Ian Holmes, said the new plans represented an ‘equitable redesign that satisfies both the hotel owners and the community’.
‘There remains a strong community preference for a pokie-free hotel that focuses on great food and music, but this consideration is not within the scope of a planning decision,’ Mr Holmes said in a written statement read at Public Access.
‘It does mean, however, that community support is qualified.
‘We thank the applicant and owners for responding to our concern regarding the proposed replacement of the existing music room with a gaming room.
Music and vibrancy
‘Segmentation of the original music room with a separate gaming room at the rear of this space provides a location that satisfies regulations and is not directly visible to the public.’
Mr Holmes said that the availability of music at the hotel remained an important consideration because it supported the ‘creative culture of Byron Shire and is considered as a key factor in defining hotels as natural gathering places’.
‘The Bangalow community intends to facilitate ongoing conversation with the owners [in relation to this],’ Mr Holmes said.
‘Renewed emphasis on music may well become the catalyst for returning the hotel to a vibrant community hub.’
Earlier in public access, the architect hired by the Mooneys to undertake the redesign, Damien Furey from Fabric Architecture Studio, said the amended plans were the outcome of an extended design and consultation process.
‘The room where it [the gaming room] is now to be proposed… it’s half the size of what it was… and it’s in the best possible position that will tick all the boxes,’ Mr Furey said.
‘It was quite tricky in terms of the heritage nature of the building, keeping it structurally sound, prolonging its longevity, and just trying to bring it up to code.
‘As it is now, the gaming room is only six, seven metres from where it is currently and has only increased in size by 15 square metres.’
With Council approval now granted, the owners of the pub are free to begin work.
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