A building that broke Shellharbour Council's height guidelines was controversially approved by councillors after it appeared they voted twice.
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At Tuesday's council meeting, councillors had to consider whether to approve a multi-storey unit block in the Shellharbour CBD, despite it breaching height limits by more than seven metres.
The $21 million development is proposed on a lot where the Shellharbour Local Environmental Plan (LEP) states the maximum height is 18 metres.
The building is 25.8 metres at its tallest point.
The council staff recommendation was to approve the development but, when it was put to a vote four councillors were in favour of it, and when mayor Chris Homer called for those opposed, five hands went up.
The motion appeared lost but, following a warning about it going to the Land and Environment Court and a request a toilet break, Cr Homer called for a vote - where it had suddenly become 6-3 in favour with Cr Moira Hamilton and Cr Colin Gow changing their vote.
Both councillors have said their change of vote was not made after any lobbying during the toilet break.
Some councillors have admitted concern about the process as it appeared that two separate votes had taken place - which cannot occur unless the first vote has been rescinded.
Shellharbour Council's Executive Manager and Public Officer, Flora Lepouras stated the first vote was "incomplete".
"Council had not yet passed a resolution for this item, as a clarification was provided about planning legislation related to the consent authority's (council) need to identify reason for refusal, if that was the intention of the council," Ms Lepouras said.
"This was provided to the council before the vote could be finalised by the Mayor.
"The Mayor stopped the vote to allow a discussion. During this process, an adjournment was called and the council had not yet passed a resolution. The meeting resumed and the vote was completed six votes for, and three votes against."
Despite the building being higher than allowed by the LEP, it was parking that concerned some councillors about the development.
Cr Jacqui Graf, who voted to approve the proposal, did feel that the 37 spaces provided in the complex were not enough and it was "worrying" that residents would take up spaces in nearby off-street parking areas.
Cr Robert Petreski was concerned about the added parking pressure this development may cause.
"What I do know is that we have our residents who already cannot find a car parking space, this is while this block is empty now," Cr Petreski said.
"If we keep saying 'look, we're not happy with the car parking but we'll let this one go but we really should look at it next time', well when do you draw a line in the sand?"
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