WAVE OF CHANGE

Palm Beach height limits slashed as council buckles to pressure

BEACHFRONT height limits at Palm Beach will be slashed by almost half after council relented to residential protests in the development hot spot.

Mayor Tom Tate and planning committee chairman Cameron Caldwell emerged from a special full council meeting yesterday confident the new zone, height and density map would ease the fiery protests from residents.

Under the changes, the eastern side of Jefferson Lane will change from medium density to lowmedium density, almost halving the existing height limits.

PALM Beach will have a new development map that limits beachfront high-rise buildings to four levels at its most expensive and sought after street address.

Mayor Tom Tate and planning committee chairman Cameron Caldwell emerged from a special full council meeting yesterday confident about a solution to ease the fiery resident protest in the development hot spot. But local councillor Daphne McDonald, who has sided with opponents of high rise, was not there to see it. The Bulletin understands she is on leave and the Mayor suggested she might be in New York.

Cr Caldwell, after meeting with planning officers, circulated a proposed zone, height and density map covering nine blocks of beachfront.

Under proposals, the eastern side of Jefferson Lane will change from medium density to low-medium density, almost halving the existing height limits. A new 16m height limit will allow for buildings of only four levels, with developers no longer able to get a 50 per cent uplift in their designs. The residential density will be one bedroom per 50sq m.

On the western side of Jefferson Lane, the height again will be halved, to 17m or five levels, but developers can get a 50 per cent increase. Cr Caldwell wrote to Cr McDonald, who was absent when the changes received the unanimous backing of councillors at the meeting. Developers could make a superseded application which could be lodged up to 12 months after an amendment started.

“This will effectively give property owners up to 18 months from commencement of the amendment to lodge a superseded application to utilise their existing development entitlements,” he wrote.

Outside the meeting, Cr Caldwell said: “We have seen there are some development pressures in that area, and this is the first significant change in planning since the mid-’80s in Palm Beach.’’ Asked outside the meeting if he had spoken to Cr McDonald, Cr Tate said: “I think she is in New York. If she was here I’d absolutely talk but dialling internationally, sorry, it’s not value for money, maybe I can Skype.”

Community Alliance leader John Hicks welcomed the recommendations but urged council to undertake more reforms away from targeted growth areas.