Developers behind the bid to build Dapto's first high-rise apartment block will be sent back to the drawing board if Wollongong City Council has its way, with the plans recommended for refusal.
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The independent Wollongong Local Planning Panel is due to meet on Thursday evening to review the plans, which council planners say will have adverse impacts on the amenity of the suburb.
Under plans lodged last December, the existing structures at 98-110 Princes Highway, except for the heritage-listed Dapto Hotel, would be razed to make way for two nine-storey apartment towers.
Shops, restaurants and cafes along the highway would be demolished, and the proposed buildings would rise just under 30 metres high.
They would contain 52 apartments and three commercial premises, with parking over three levels for 120 cars.
The hotel itself would be mostly left alone, apart from minor alterations to remove intrusive elements and enhance its heritage features.
The council received four submissions on the project, which raised a range of concerns that Dapto did not have the road and school infrastructure to support the extra homes and that the homes wouldn't be suitable for families as they are close to large licensed premises.
In a report to the panel, the council has acknowledged that the scale and character of Dapto's town centre is likely to have more high-rise buildings in the future, but says the development "is not considered to be in harmony with the surrounding buildings and character of the street".
In consultation with the council, the developers have made a number of adjustments to their plans since they were lodged, including a wider pedestrian area and increased separation between the apartments and hotel.
They have also provided more details about the history of the hotel, and redesigned aspects of the building and car park.
However, the council says there are still a number of outstanding issues, including that the apartment blocks will still result in "adverse overshadowing" to the back of the heritage hotel which would be "to the detriment of the amenity of the hotel and hotel patrons".
They were also concerned that the upstairs accommodation rooms in the hotel would remain unused, and said the effects of the development were "considered on balance to be too significant to be approved without greater certainty regarding the future conservation and use of the hotel".
The WLPP will consider the council's report, as well as presentations from any objectors and the applicant before making a determination on the proposal.
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