Nissan Site Chronology of Events

by Murray Matson
25/03/2011

A number of posts on this site have asked for a history of the Nissan site approval.

Here is a chronology of the events underlying this complex decision.

A Master Plan was lodged by the applicant for the subject site in December 2003, which was assessed and recommended for adoption subject to a number of amendments to the Master Plan including specifically, a reduction in the overall height of the Master Plan proposal to three and four storeys.

However, Council at its meeting on 24 February 2004 resolved to refuse the Master Plan.

The applicant then lodged a development application No 820/2004 for demolition of existing buildings and construction of a part-3 and part-4 storey mixed use development comprising 53 dwelling units, car showroom on the ground floor level and basement carparking for 143 vehicles.

Randwick LEP 1998 at that time stated that if a master plan for a site had been rejected by Council then the requirement for a master Plan to be adopted for the site does not apply and an applicant can then lodge a development application.

However, a consent authority (i.e. the Council) was required at the time when assessing a development application for the site, to have regard to the range of matters that was set out in the masterplan clause.

An assessment of development application No 820/2004 indicated that it addressed these range of matters and incorporated almost all of the amendments proposed by Council’s officers in the initial recommendation for adoption of the Master Plan.

The application was approved on 8 February 2005 with an FSR of 1.4:1. The Deferred Commencement Conditions for this consent have been satisfied and the DA has been activated in that remediation works on site have been commenced.

It should be noted that at the time of the approval in 2005, the site enjoyed the benefit of existing use rights under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, as it was operating commercially (with development consent) prior to the coming into force of the Randwick Local Environmental Plan 1998.

Accordingly, the proposal was made pursuant to the relevant provisions of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulations at the time that allowed an existing use to change to another non-conforming use and the continuation of part of the non-conforming use in the form of the proposed car showroom.

As such, the provisions (objectives, controls or standards) of the Randwick LEP 1998 which would otherwise prohibit/restrict the proposed uses did not apply.

DA/215/2010 for demolition of existing buildings and construction of part 4/part 5 storey residential flat building comprising 124 apartments with two levels of basement carparking for 178 vehicles with associated works was refused by the Joint Regional Planning Panel on 30 June 2010.

The Panel made, among other things, the following resolution in its refusal of the application:

"The Panel is aware of the existing consent for a development at a FSR of 1.4:1 and would therefore reluctantly accept a variation to this level but no further."

A new DA was submitted.

DA/526/2010 for demolition of existing buildings and construction of part 4/part 5 storey residential flat building comprising 117 apartments with two levels of basement carparking for 146 vehicles with associated works was approved on 25 November 2010 by the JRPP.

This DA was consistent with the recommendation of the JRPP that the FSR not exceed 1.4:1.

Murray Matson Mayor Randwick City Council

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B_Teo posts

Thank you Mr Matson this is a good help