Council meeting 4 November 2008

Tonight's meeting was a Development Applications committee meeting.

A stand out application involved an application seeking consent to the erection of 42 industrial units on a speculative basis at 73 Elizabeth Street Tighes Hill.



I moved that:

That council reject the application on the following grounds:

1. The proposal does not comply with the Newcastle Development Control Plan, particularly in relation to:

a. the objective of Element 7.1.7 (Neighbourhood Amenity), which requires that industrial developments must not have “a materially detrimental effect on the amenity of adjoining residential areas”.

b. the special requirements in Element 7.1.7 applying to proposed industrial developments that adjoin or are located in close proximity to residentially zoned land to provide council and the community with an adequate level of certainty about a range of potentially significant impacts on neighbourhood amenity, including:

• i. the nature of the proposed operation,
• ii. parking and traffic impacts,
• iii. hours of operation, and
• iv. noise.

c. the bulk, scale, height and intensity of the proposed development in the particular location.

2. The proposed development does not comply with objective (a) of the 4(a) Urban Services zone in the Newcastle Local Environmental Plan, in that it has not satisfactorily established that it will not “adversely affect the amenity of the neighbourhood”;

3. The proposed development is inconsistent with the Newcastle Urban Strategy (NUS) in relation to Tighes Hill, in that it does not represent “quality urban design that reflects local character” and would exacerbate existing amenity problems in the Tighes Hill area identified in the NUS, including traffic and noise.

The Motion was put to the meeting and the Lord Mayor called for a division which resulted as follows:

For the Motion:
Councillors S Claydon, S Connell, T Crakanthorp, M Jackson, N Nelmes and M Osborne.

Against the Motion:
The Lord Mayor, Councillors G Boyd, B Cook, B Luke and S Sharpe.

The Lord Mayor declared the Motion carried on the result of six votes to five votes.

Note Councillor Buman declared a non-pecuniary interest in Item 50 – DA 07/1195 – 73 Elizabeth Street Tighes Hill as he was friends with members involved in the matter.

Councillor King declared a non-pecuniary interest in Item 50 – DA 07/1195 – 73 Elizabeth Street Tighes Hill as he had a close and long term friendship with a representative from the applicant. He believed he could be impartial with dealing with the matter however he had made a commitment at the public voice session that he would not participate in the matter, so to avoid any perception of impropriety he would absent himself from the Council Chamber during discussion and voting on the matter.

That night, Councillors G Boyd, B Cook, B Luke and S Sharpe put in the following Rescission Motion

MOTION
We, the Councillors below wish to rescind the motion passed on Item 50 - DA 07/1195 – 73 Elizabeth Street Tighes Hill – of the Development Applications committee 4 November 2008.

If the Rescission Motion for DA 07/1195 - DP 434884 is successful we intend to move the following motion:

That DA 07/1195:DP 434884 be accepted as per the officers recommendation with the conditions as outlined in the Council Officers recommendation contained in the report considered at the meeting held 4 November 2008.