Australia, June 24 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 23:

1. COMMISSIONER: This is an appeal pursuant to s 8.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act), brought by CE Bondi Beach Pty Ltd (the Applicant), against the deemed refusal of Development Application DA-69/2024 (the DA) by Waverley Council (the Respondent).

2. At the date of its lodgement on 6 March 2024, the DA sought consent for the demolition of existing structures, removal of five trees, Torrens title subdivision, and the construction of a pair of two-storey semi-detached dwellings and a new part two- part three-storey residential apartment building at 20-22 Sandridge Street and 21 Wilga Street, Bondi (the site).

3. The matter was listed for hearing before me over two days on 7 and 8 April 2025, however during the site view at the commencement of the hearing, the parties indicated to me the prospect of an agreement being reached. After the site view, I granted a short adjournment to allow the parties to finalise a formal agreement, which was then filed with the Court on the afternoon of 7 April 2025.

4. Under the Chief Judge's delegation, the Registrar re-allocated the matter as a conciliation conference pursuant to s 34 of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (LEC Act) and listed the matter before me, again on the afternoon of 7 April 2025.

5. During the resumed conciliation conference, the parties reached agreement as to the terms of a decision in these proceedings that would be acceptable to the parties. The agreement involves the Court upholding the appeal and granting development consent to an amended DA, subject to conditions.

6. Of particular note, the proposal has been amended by agreement between the parties to resolve the contentions raised by the Respondent. These contentions included issues of excessive building bulk, scale, failure to exhibit design excellence, avoidable and unacceptable view impacts upon neighbours, excessive excavation, an inadequate level of residential amenity available to some proposed bedrooms and inadequate vehicle access, amongst other contentions.

7. Agreed design amendments have now been made to improve the proposed buildings' relationship to the site and its context. Changes have been made to reduce the overall bulk and scale of the proposal, particularly as it presents to the site's side boundaries. Other issues such as privacy, cross viewing and vehicle access have been resolved. These agreed amendments also mitigate against earlier impacts of building scale and view affectation for a number of nearby neighbours.

8. Under s 34(3) of the LEC Act, I must dispose of the proceedings in accordance with the parties' decision if the parties' decision is a decision 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 amended DA.

9. There are jurisdictional prerequisites that must be satisfied before this function can be exercised.

10. In that regard, I am satisfied the DA was made with the consent of the owner of the land, evidenced within the Class 1 Application accompanying this matter.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/196f10988784ed63b623ab18)

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