Consent sought to vary standard at Blue Bay units

Photomontage of proposed units at Blue Bay

The property owner at 121 Ocean Pde, Blue Bay, wants to demolish a dilapidated building and replace it with five units but needs approval from Central Coast Council to vary a development standard.

It is proposed to build two and three bedroom units in a triple-storey building on the corner of Ocean Pde between The Crescent and Boondilla Rd.

Plans have been refined since an initial meeting with Council officers in September 2021 to now provide greater setbacks from the north and western adjoining properties by shifting the building closer to the street frontage as well as improved architecture for building articulation to mitigate over-shadowing and privacy.

However, plans do not comply with the floor space ratio standard under Wyong Local Environmental Plan 2013 and the owner has sought permission to exceed the development standard by 9.3 percent or 43.2sqm.

In an official written request to Council it says that “9.3 percent is modest and if strict compliance with the standard was required, it would undermine the viability of the development on the site”.

The document says that compliance with the standard “is unreasonable and unnecessary and there are sufficient environmental planning grounds to justify contravening the development standard”.

It says that the proposal is consistent with the height, bulk and scale of nearby residential dwellings and the emerging scale in the locality, as well as being in alignment with other building lines to the north and west and along Ocean Pde.

The variation request points out that the proposal complies with a range of other development standards.

“The floor space is necessary to promote good design and amenity (of the proposal)”, the document says.

The development application (1922/2022) is open for public comment and Council will take submissions until Friday, August 26.

Sue Murray