Australia, Sept. 8 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on Aug. 7:

1. COMMISSIONER: These Class 1 proceedings arise as a result of the actual refusal, by Paramatta City Council of Development Application 837/2022. This application has been made by Rapisarda Holdings Pty Ltd as Trustee for the Rapisarda Property Trust, and seeks consent for the construction of an 11-storey mixed-use building containing ground floor retail/commercial space and 66 co-living rooms over one level of basement at 183 Macquarie Street, Parramatta legally known as Lot A DP 375159 (subject site).

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

3. Following an earlier unsuccessful conciliation conference, the matter was listed for hearing, commencing 7 May 2025. At the commencement of the hearing, the parties indicated that they had continued to conciliate on a without prejudice basis, and that the issues in contention had been resolved through proposed amendments to the application. Subsequently, at the parties' request, the Court arranged a further conciliation conference between the parties under s 34(1) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (NSW) (LEC Act) which was held on 8 May 2025, and over which I presided.

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.

5. As part of this agreement, pursuant to s 38 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (NSW) (EPA Regulation), the Council agreed to the applicant amending the development application. These amendments included:

1) The removal of 3 levels from the building height (from 11 storeys down to 8);

2) An increase in floor to floor levels from 2.95 to 3.1m;

3) The removal of the building setback to Macquarie Street;

4) Increase in the length of the internal light well from 6m to 9m;

5) A reduction in the number of units from 66 to 49;

6) An increase in the height of the ground floor level adjacent to the lift to RL6.9 in order to be above the flood planning level.

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 in a jurisdictional note. From this, I note the following points.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/19877de56afdbbae23e68dc6)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.