NORTH SYDNEY WILL BE DEAD TOWN FOREVER!

We are currently apply a Business College with converting a office in north sydney(no need to change anything outside, just partition the office, the DA had been rejected with SEE report, Resubmit the Second DA , Council is treating us as a "big development" application. Pre-DA meeting is all fine. you know what the Council reply? They want 1. SEE report from a Town planner, A detail access report with no effects and BCA provided, 2. treat us as 24 hours gym require a management plan detailed ,required a new green access report, and suspect us on construction cost( required redo from QS !!! QS) .Even the one of the town planner think this is too too harsh.


We have to spend around 10,000 just for those paperworks for DA (excluding the drawings) . This is not to demolish the buildings and built a 20 levels apartment!

We could rather go to court, but why spent 50,000 for the lawsuit for this only a office convert to a classrooms?

and the council is using residents' money for any lawsuit! ( You pay the council fees, and they waste all)

I believe the North Sydney will still be dead town in the weekend and after 6 pm weekdays, this will continue for another 100 years if they are still continuing to do this!

The big developers are lucKy , because they don't have to deal with the Council, they deal with State government for 20 floors' development like Crown!

 

One too many Sherrys perhaps?

 

This, I think is kind of true. It they are close enough to crows nest soo...

 

I can't believe that council would reject on the basis of not getting the information required in its DA guide.

Education has a higher person/m2 than office settings - no effect? Hours of operation? Transport?

It's not a home extension - this is a commercial project and council quite rightly wants a qs or builder's quote for construction costs as fees paid to the construction industry long service board are dependent upon them.

 

Meanwhile in Brisbane doesn't matter if it's Heritage doesn't matter if it's green space doesn't matter what the zoning or regional plan says it's open slather up here on development.

 

I took this as a physical threat

 

It'll be swimmin' with the fishes

 

So what is the question?
Marg

 

To change the use of a building to another use, why should a business have to provide town planning information? There is a simple answer to this question: because it's the law. But we shouldn't let the facts get in the way of a good rant!

 

This is pretty standard. Existing office is class 5 use. Business college is a class 9b. Will trigger different requirements under the BCA, hence BCA report required to confirm compliance. Hope that the building has two fire stairs as offices in under 25m buildings are only required to have one exit but class 9 use is typically required to have two.

 

How outrageous that a business is required to comply with a building code!

 

OP likely resides in (from) a country where building legislation can be changed or forgotten with the right payment OR building codes are considered of less importance in the name of new shiny buildings at the expense of all else. His or her command of the language is quite familiar.

 

Yes... sounds like how some of my friends communicate.

 

North Sydney is already dead after 6pm weekdays and in the weekends. That cant make it any worse. Saying that the amount of units already built and thousands more on the drawing board will bring back some life to North Sydney....It's never going to be like t h e good ole days...Berry Street Tavern, Metropolois, Blueberrys .
There are developers crawling all over Crows Nest at the moment putting sites together as well as St Leonards. These two suburbs will have even more residents than North Sydney if they dont already.
Coles opened up in North Sydney a short while ago. New Woolworths opened up in Crows Nest 6 months ago and Coles have started their new development on Willoughby Rd Crows Nest. Alot more to happen

 

I thought it would have had a good night life ?

unfortunately, probably not, maybe that would help though

 

Sounds pretty standard to me.

As mentioned previously, you're changing from a class 5 (office) to a 9b (public assembly) building classification. A 9b in some ways are one of the most demanding classes in terms of fire safety. Depending on the height of the building and it's current fire safety measures you could be up for a very large upgrade $$$.

If anything, the requirement for a BCA report is doing you a massive favour because by the sounds of it, you thought it was as easy as applying for a DA and off you go. For anyone looking at opening colleges, the first thing I would do before even applying for a DA or even securing a tenancy is to do a BCA assessment to see what upgrades you are in for. How can you even begin to think about getting a DA for the use and fitout if your building physically cannot support the building class?

As for the plan of management, believe it or not, a college has the potential to have more impact on surrounding amenity than a 24 hour gym. Have you ever had a walk around the city? What do you see outside every college? Students loitering, smoking, littering outside. All this needs to be managed property in an endorsed POM within the conditions of consent. If you give them a crap POM what are they going enforce?

My advice is to factor in all the DA supporting documentation costs and delays in your DD and make your decision on whether to go ahead based on this, it sounds like the council have made very basic demands and I my honest opinion only - don't like your chances of winning if it went court. It sounds like you have overlooked a lot of aspects in this project.

 

North Sydney is so close to the city tho. If someone suggests North Sydney for a night out, it has ALWAYS been changed to the city fot us. Much more to do in the city.

 

Even if you went to court you would not win, just waste your money because council is correct and there is no gray area where a court could make a ruling on.

You need to submit a better DA and then look again at your options.

 

Just do it - if it's all internal how would they know?

Ok signage and students hanging around - but I reckon they wouldn't even care if no one dobs it in and why would anyone?

And finally after all that, a retrospective DA while you're operating is much more relaxing than the crap you're going through now. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

 

@scientist - WHS? There is a duty of care to all workers and visitors under the Act.

That's a totally irresponsible attitude. If a student happens to suffer an injury or death because you thought you would occupy a non-complying premises the directors are personally liable including criminal procedures. Insurance won't get you out of that.

What are you going to tell the coroner? " I'm submitting my DA next week", little comfort to a grieving family.