Zaki v City of Sydney Council

Land and Environment Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Zaki v City of Sydney Council [2015] NSWLEC 1506 Hearing dates:11 November 2015Date of orders: 30 November 2015 Decision date: 30 November 2015 Jurisdiction:Class 1Before: Tuor C Decision: See paragraph 46 Catchwords: DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION: Child care centre. Adequacy of communal open space and impact on residential amenity. Legislation Cited: Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 Land and Environment Court Act 1979 State Environmental Planning Policy No 65 – Design Quality of Residential Flat Development. Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012 Category:Principal judgmentParties: Carlos Zaki (Applicant) City of Sydney Council (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: Mr M Staunton (Applicant) Ms Berglund (Respondent) Solicitors: Storey and Gough (Applicant) City of Sydney Council (Respondent) File Number(s):10311 of 2015Judgment Carlos Zaki (applicant) has appealed, pursuant to s 97 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act), against the refusal by the Council of the City of Sydney (council) of a development application (D/2014/159) for the “fitout of an existing ground floor and first floor level for a childcare centre” in an existing mixed use building at 513-519 Wattle Street, Ultimo (site). The development application involves the change of use of two existing ground floor commercial tenancies to a child care centre and the use by the centre of an existing communal open space on Level 1 during the child care centre’s operating hours. The key issue that remains in dispute between the parties is whether the use of the communal open space on level 1...