The Bondi neighbours, their $940k parking garage dream and a six-year legal drama

2 weeks ago 3

Four Bondi Beach neighbours who teamed up with a plan to build a $940,000 parking garage under their homes have lost a legal challenge to carry out the works after their local council said the proposal was against its policy of encouraging car owners to ditch their wheels and use public transport.

James Bullen, his wife Jayshri Bullen and their next door neighbours, Nicholas and Ivana Seale, have been left with a hefty legal bill after unsuccessfully taking Waverley Council to court in a bid to build a shared garage underneath their neighbouring Wilga Street properties.

Jayshri Bullen was among the neighbours who teamed up to fund the underground capark.

The semi-detached homes, near Bondi’s famed beachside strip, lack off-street parking – a state of affairs the neighbours had hoped to address by jointly funding the shared garage, offering each home one car parking space.

But what the home owners thought would be a straightforward development application process instead turned into a protracted planning ordeal after the council rejected the application due to concerns the garage could “impact the public domain”; lead to unacceptable levels of excavation; and that it was inconsistent with its planning controls aimed at discouraging the provision of private car parking in a move to promote walking, cycling and public transport use.

The council’s position is in line with a string of recent planning control changes made by other inner-city councils including the City of Sydney and North Sydney, which have recently capped maximum car parking rates in new residential developments to encourage residents to use public transport.

Inner West Council’s “fairer future” housing plans, which aim to deliver upwards of 35,000 homes in the local government area over the next 15 years, have also proposed capping off-street car parking rates in new residential builds to “support a mode shift away from private car use”.

A concept photo of the Bondi driveway, lodged as part of the development application which was refused by Waverley Council.

Bullen, who dates the Bondi parking saga to 2019 when he first approached the council to discuss the proposal, said it was “not feasible” for his family to use public transport for every journey they take.

He said the garage was aimed at addressing the daily ordeal of finding a free on-street spot in a part of Sydney where parking is at a premium.

“We have jobs,” he said. “My wife works in Wollongong, and when you need to take your kids to sport on the weekend, the reality is you need a car.

“Because we live close to the beach, it’s a nightmare to find a park on the street, and on the weekends and during summer it becomes impossible.

A photo of the current landscape on the street where the driveway entrance was proposed.

“In one of the discussions we had with the council we were told, ‘Perhaps you should think about moving to another area’, but this is our home and all we wanted was somewhere to park our car.

“It’s felt like through this process, visitors and tourists to Bondi are being prioritised over residents.”

In refusing the parking garage plans last year, the council outlined issues with the proposal including impacts on the street verge and concerns it could “significantly dominate and adversely impact the character of the streetscape”.

“This area has very low on-street parking availability, and the ‘privatisation’ and conversion of on-street to off-street parking has no public benefit,” it said.

A design of the driveway, lodged to Waverley Council as part of the development application.

The neighbours appealed to the Land and Environment Court.

During court hearings, evidence by expert traffic and town planning consultants on behalf of the council argued the “garage would visually dominate the streetscape”, create potential for conflict between pedestrians and vehicles, and lead to “excessive” levels of excavation.

Planning documents for the garage by the property owners show the construction works would have involved excavating 307.5 cubic metres underneath the properties at a depth of up to 3.9 metres, resulting in a loss of one on-street parking space to accommodate vehicle access.

Expert evidence on behalf of the home owners said the collaboration between the property owners to create single shared parking garage would minimise the excavation – as compared to the amount of excavation required for two separate driveways – and that the loss of one on-street parking space, offset by two off-street parking spaces, would ease parking pressure in the area.

The development was partly aimed at addressing the struggle of finding a free street car park in Bondi.

But Land and Environment Court acting commissioner Amelia Thorpe agreed with the council’s arguments and dismissed the appeal, finding the “private benefits being pursued would come at the expense of public benefits”.

In her ruling, Thorpe also found the development was “contrary to the public interest due to its inconsistency with council policy and controls to discourage the provision of private car parking”.

In a statement, a Waverley Council spokesman said the decision correlated with its position that the development “was not suitable for the location with the proximity of the property to public transport being just one factor”.

But Nicholas Seale was disappointed with the outcome.

“We love public transport and I ride a bike, but we have a multi-generational household and it’s not practicable to use public transport for every journey,” he said. “The whole experience has been very frustrating and a complete waste of time.”