The NSW Education Department and the Byron Bay Public School Parents & Citizens (P&C) Association have both raised strong concerns over the significant bulk and scale of the Hemmes Merivale large development in Byron Bay.
The proposed development seeks to combine multiple sites, 111–115 Jonson Street, Byron Bay, into a potentially late-night venue for 545 patrons plus 40 staff, that is just 70m from the Byron Public School.
The P&C have submitted significant objections to the development application (DA) stating that the, ‘cosmetic re-branding does not change the reality of the proposal’.
‘The substitution of the word “bar” with “lounge”, in the May 2025 Merivale Plan of Management, and the removal of references to functions, are purely cosmetic. The development still seeks a late-night licensed venue for 545 patrons plus 40 staff, trading until 2am (or later if the proposed Special Entertainment Precinct is approved), 70m from Byron Bay Public School, and approximately 40m from the school boundary if you factor in the patrons in the newly proposed outdoor courtyard facilities.’
Traffic, noise issues
They have also noted that the schools existence ‘is still completely absent from every noise assessment’; that the rear courtyards ‘remain open-air and are the closest to our school boundary’, which is the part of the school where their ‘youngest students will be trying to learn and play’; about congestion and parking impacts; and that the ‘residential apartments immediately adjoining the site seem to have been misclassified as “commercial” receptors, allowing noise limits approximately 23 dB higher than the correct residential night-time criteria’.
Speaking to The Echo previously, Justin Hemmes said they would be operating as a family restaurant and not seeking to be open to 2am as the former Cheeky Monkeys site. He was however clear that he was not seeking to relinquish the 2am licence as that is an asset in a future potential sale.
The P&C is calling on councillors to reinstate previously removed conditions from the Cheeky Monkeys site across the whole site so that the venue is a restaurant only; to reinstate the hours of operation so they ‘are limited to those consistent with a family-friendly restaurant the Hemmes Property Group asserts it is building’; reduce patron numbers significantly; and provide a full acoustic assessment that includes the impacts on Byron Public School.
If the DA goes through they have also requested that substantial Section 7.11 funds (formerly Section 94) are directed towards traffic calming and child-safety infrastructure in the Byron Bay Public School zone.
‘In its current form, the Merivale proposal for a massive venue enabling drinking without eating across the day and night, within 70 metres of a large public school, is in our view clearly inappropriate overdevelopment which threatens the safety and educational well-being of the children of Byron Bay Public School, potentially for generations to come,’ concluded the P&C in their submission.
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