Australia, Dec. 26 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on Dec. 13:

1. COMMISSIONER: These Class 1 proceedings arise as a result of the actual refusal, by Georges River Council, of Development Application DA2022/0614, which seeks consent for the construction of a detached secondary dwelling at the rear of the existing principal dwelling on lot 184 of DP 11098, known as 45 Kuroki Street, Penshurst.

2. These proceedings have been brought to the Court pursuant to s 8.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act).

3. The Court arranged a conciliation conference and hearing under s 34AA of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (LEC Act) between the parties, which was held on 21 November 2024. I presided over the conciliation conference.

4. At the conciliation conference, the parties reached agreement as to acceptable terms of a decision in the proceedings. This decision involved the Court upholding the appeal and granting consent to the development application subject to conditions. Accordingly, the matter concluded in conciliation and did not proceed to a hearing.

5. As part of the agreement, pursuant to s 38 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (EPA Regulation), the Council agreed to the Applicant amending the development application to adequately address the issues in contention.

6. Under s 34(3) of the LEC Act, I must dispose of the proceedings in accordance with the parties' decision if that decision is one that the Court could have made in the proper exercise of its functions. The parties' decision involves the Court exercising the function under s 4.16 of the EPA Act to grant consent to the development application. There are jurisdictional prerequisites that must be satisfied before this function can be exercised, which the parties identified and explained in a jurisdictional note. From this, I note the following points.

Jurisdictional matters

7. The development application was made with the written consent of the owner of the land.

8. The application was adequately notified in accordance with the Georges River Council Community Engagement Strategy 2018-2028 from 2 to 16 March 2023. Fifteen submissions were received in this time, and two residents made oral submissions at the commencement of proceedings. A further, limited renotification occurred as a result of the amendments to the application on 23 September 2024, to which three additional submissions were made. Based on the amended application, the parties submit, and I accept, that the development as amended adequately responds to the concerns raised in these submissions.

9. The subject site is zoned R2 Low Density Residential under the Georges River Local Environmental Plan 2021 (GRLEP), within which development for the purposes of a dwelling house is permissible with consent. The proposed development is consistent with the objectives of this zone.

10. Pursuant to GRLEP cl 4.3, a maximum building height of 9m applies to the subject site. The proposed development complies with this development standard with a maximum height of 4.65m.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/193b42ece9b4bef9452774c2)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.