A development application for a mixed use building with ground-level commercial premises and shop-top housing at Toowoon Bay is open for public comment until July 5.
The small, narrow, vacant block of 259.3sqm is at the southern end of the group of shops and has dual street frontage to Bay Rd and Eloora Rd.
The site has been vacant since a previous laundromat and dry cleaning business burnt down.
This development application (524/2021) is an updated version of a previous similar development approval in 2015.
New plans for the site include 90sqm of business tenancy on the ground floor, with hours of operation on weekdays between 7am and 6pm and 8am to 4pm on weekends and public holidays.
There will be three parking spaces, accessed via Eloora Rd, with one allocated to the business premises, one for the residence above and the other for visitors.
A three-bedroom, split level residential unit will be above the commercial premises.
The site is zoned for commercial purposes, however, adjoining land is zoned residential.
In the Statement of Environmental Effects (SEE), the applicant is seeking approval for a slight variation in building height, with 9.5m being the limit, but one part of the building will reach 10.37m.
Also, the proposal does not comply with the front setback for each street frontage of 7.5m nor with the 6m setback on the side boundary.
The SEE argues that the required setbacks under the Development Control Plan predominantly relate to residential flat buildings and townhouse type development adjoining other residential development, rather than shop top housing in a commercial area which are more relevant in this case.
The applicant is proposing 6m street frontage setbacks, 1.3m to 1.9m on the southern side, and nil on the northern boundary as it will abut an existing commercial property, all of which the SEE states as being “reasonable in the site context”.
“The development proposal has been designed to mitigate any impacts upon surrounding development including any significant loss of privacy or overshadowing to habitable rooms or private open space,” the SEE says.
Sue Murray