The Melbourne-based developer behind a luxury beachfront apartment project in Byron Bay is seeking to push the building more than two metres above the town’s height limit, describing our height rules as ‘unreasonable’ and ‘unnecessary’.
The modification application, now on exhibition with Byron Council, relates to a five-unit residential flat building approved last year for 42–44 Lawson Street, opposite Main Beach and Dening Park.
The original development application (DA), approved in December 2025, allowed for a three-storey development with basement parking and five apartments.
But the Melbourne-based developer, Newmagoo Pty Ltd, has now lodged a Section 4.55 modification application seeking to increase the building height from the permitted nine metres to 11.175 metres – a 24 per cent exceedance of Byron’s height controls.
Rooftop terraces featuring swimming pools
The additional height would accommodate larger floor-to-floor heights and new rooftop terraces featuring swimming pools, entertaining areas, landscaping and other facilities for penthouse residents.
Planning consultants Urbis, acting for the developer, argue the increase is justified because modern building standards effectively make strict compliance with Byron’s older nine metre limit ‘unreasonable or unnecessary’.
Established precedent
‘Historically, a nine metre height is typical of a three-storey structure; however, to deliver a constructable three-storey product… a floor-to-floor height more than 3.1 metres is required,’ the report states.
Urbis also argues that Byron Council has effectively established a precedent for height variations by approving numerous similar breaches in recent years.
Developers keep pushing heights
The proposed Lawson Street increase is the latest in what has become a familiar pattern in Byron, and across the Shire, where developers secure approval for one project before later returning with modification applications seeking additional height, rooftop structures, or expanded bulk and more.
In 2023, developers behind the Bonobo by Raes luxury apartment project on Jonson Street sought further rooftop height increases after already obtaining approval for a development that exceeded local limits.
Land and Environment Court
Earlier this year, developers of the Eade beachfront apartment project at Shirley Street successfully secured another increase in building height through the Land and Environment Court after Byron Council initially failed to approve the modification.
The original DA for the Lawson Street site had itself been promoted partly on the basis that the development would remain within the nine metre height limit.
Newmagoo Pty Ltd does not have a publicly listed phone number or email address. An ASIC search shows that it has a registered address in the Melbourne suburb of Camberwell.
The modification application is currently on public exhibition through Byron Council’s DA Tracker (www.byron.nsw.gov.au).
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