Cooks Hill residents are protesting to Newcastle council after a developer sought approval to modify plans for a Laman Street unit block after it was built.
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Cooks Hill Community Group president Glenn Burgess will address a public voice session at City Hall on Tuesday objecting to changes to a three-storey building nearing completion on the former Glovers Lane Reserve.
The site has been the subject of controversy since 2013, when residents started fighting to preserve the tiny park and the neighbourhood's heritage character.
The council sold the land nonetheless and in 2016 approved a development comprising 11 serviced apartments. It approved amended plans in 2017.
The developer, GHT Holdings, applied in June for retrospective consent for what a council staff report describes as "inconsistencies" with the approved plans, including a 0.55-metre height variance, new windows and decking.
Mr Burgess said on Monday that the building was taller and bulkier than what was approved and presented privacy issues for residents in surrounding houses.
The developer's application to amend the approved plans has attracted 59 public submissions.
The council staff report to go before councillors on Tuesday says the developer is entitled to seek retrospective consent under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act.
It says the change in height is minor, but it does not offer an opinion about the potential loss of neighbours' privacy due to altered windows.
It says an unauthorised deck on the top floor "offers views into neighbouring gardens" and suggests planter boxes and privacy screens to restrict "overlooking".
A planning report prepared for the developer says the changes "provide for limited impacts to the area".
Mr Burgess said the modified 2017 plans "improved a lot of things for the neighbours but when the scaffold came off we realised most of those changes weren't done".
The community group's submission says the Act requires the council to consider the reasons it gave for approving the "consent that is sought to be modified".
"The current [2017] approval is all about improving the privacy of the neighbours, and yet it hasn't been done," Mr Burgess said.
Residents were not arguing the developer had to "pull the roof down and change the height".
"We'll say they can have the height and the extra floor space, but we want the privacy issues improved."
CHCG and a Laman Street neighbour had reached an agreement with the project's private certifier to solve privacy issues, but this certifier no longer worked on the development.
Michael Parris
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
