Byron Shire Council (BSC) staff have recommended approval of Justin Hemmes’ large, multi-site development application (DA) at 111–115 Jonson Street. However, concerns remain over parking, and the lack of public access to key reports.
Merivale CEO Hemmes has put in a retrospective DA to transform the multiple sites in Byron Bay opposite Mercato into his two restaurants Totti’s and Jimmy’s Falafel serving 545 customers, with 40 staff, running from 10am until 2am. The DA is ‘retrospective’ because Merrivale started work on the site without an approved DA for the changes they were making.
Significant backlash
The DA has drawn significant backlash from locals and the Byron Public School P&C as well as objections from the Department of Education as the development is less the 60m from the primary school.
After purchasing the properties and allowing a number of years to go by without redevelopment, Merivale had then started work on the sites ‘without consent’, according to BSC staff in their report to Council, and was then required by BSC to submit a DA for the proposed changes to the multiple sites.
There were 68 submissions in relation to the DA with 65 against and three in favour. As a result BSC has recommended approval at the upcoming Council meeting with changes to the DA including a reduction in patron numbers from 545 to 455; trading hours to finish at 10pm rather that 2am, with a 12-month trial of closing at midnight; no alcohol to be served without a booking for eating at the restaurant; and that ‘there are no bar areas for the service of alcohol in outside courtyard spaces’. Any bar areas ‘must be limited to the internal area of the building only’. A further condition is that ‘there is no amplification or music to be played in any outdoor areas/courtyards associated with the premises including the public domain.’
Listened to concerns
A spokesperson for the Byron Public School P&C told The Echo they are ‘encouraged that Council has listened to the concerns of the school community and other local objections.’
‘The safety and wellbeing of the children at Byron Bay Public is, and always will be, our main concern and we remain concerned about the premise’s impact on parking in the area of a venue with maximum capacity of 455 patrons and only nine car spaces and a shuttle bus.’
Another local, who made a submission to the DA, told The Echo that, ‘the shuttle bus to replace a shortfall of 15 car spaces is ridiculous and would set a precedent’. Other venues in the region that have previously put on shuttle buses have removed the service in recent times due to cost and other factors.
‘The appropriate thing to do would be to impose conditions within the DA to provide the 15-space shortfall as a bond that would be returnable if the trial shows it [the shuttle bus system] is successful. Otherwise the funds that go toward providing additional parking for the town will be lost, given the possibility that the trial doesn’t work.’
DA should be readvertised
Some locals have said that the DA should be readvertised after an amended acoustic report and amended plan of management are submitted rather than make the submission of these amended reports subject to the issue of a construction certificate. They say that these reports contain key issues that the community has a right to know about and comment on.
Other key issues of concern are around the use for footpaths for dining and planters as the DA has no mention of meeting disability standards regarding placement of the planters or details of the required lease of the proposed footpath dining area or how much would be paid to BSC for lease of that space.
While it was suggested by many in submissions that previous consents be removed (an application for a 3am licence for the Cheeky Monkeys portion of the site was rejected in 2005), this hasn’t been initiated by BSC.
Misinformation
Responding to the submissions from the community, Department of Education, and school P&C, Mr Hemmes accused the community and media of ‘misinformation’ about the development in a letter to BSC on 7 January, 2026 including claims that there were ‘serious and unresolved noise impacts,’ and that the ‘private shuttle service is inadequate and unassessed’.
In that letter to Council, Hemmes further stated that he had spoken to the principal of the Byron Bay Public School, Ms Morris. Hemmes said Morris had told him that she ‘was receptive to the clarification’ around the DA, that the P&C was misinformed and that the ‘Department of Education’s formal objection to our development application appears to be similarly misinformed’.
A small volunteer group of parents
Responding to the accusations that the P&C and the media had misinformed Council, Dr Ray Moynihan, a former member of the P&C, and a senior researcher at the University of Sydney currently studying misinformation in social media told The Echo that, ‘The P&C is a small volunteer group of parents of children at Byron Bay Public School. It seems odd, and perhaps even a little unneighbourly and self-defeating, for Mr Hemmes to attack a hard-working P&C, largely made up of mothers raising legitimate concerns about the safety and welfare of their children.
‘While Mr Hemmes may choose to characterise the P&C’s concerns as misinformation in his private letter to Council, it seems Council took a different view, reducing patron numbers, ensuring drinking must be accompanied by dining, and winding back opening hours,’ said Moynihan.
‘While there’s still concern about so many extra cars so close to a school, and questions around parking, this episode underscores the value of communities making their voices heard, in a town facing ongoing pressures from overdevelopment.’
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