Auburn facility refused over four-space car park and mosque site links

A proposed two-storey community facility at 68 Kihilla Road, Auburn, has been refused after the Cumberland Local Planning Panel found its four parking spaces and reversing area inadequate for drop-off and pick-up involving 52 students, six staff and additional volunteers.

Development Application 2026/0082 sought approval to demolish existing structures and build the facility for community use, including Saturday education activities and food distribution. The panel found the proposal relied on the adjoining mosque at 2 Argyle Street for parking, student prayers, lunches and other operations, although that land was not included in the application.

The panel said the two sites were interrelated and that the application did not address the existing approval and conditions applying to the mosque and residential use at 2 Argyle Street. Those conditions include a maximum of 150 people on the site at one time, no more than 15 social gatherings a year and restrictions on car-park use.

The proposed parking area was also intended to handle food deliveries and the collection of food boxes for community distribution on weekdays. The panel rejected traffic assumptions based on a one-day survey and an estimate of 29 vehicles arriving for 90 seconds each.

It found Argyle Street was narrow and that children as young as five would need to be escorted to the first floor and signed in. The submitted management plan did not explain how staggered drop-off and pick-up would work, and the panel said the proposed building’s bulk, setbacks, landscaping and streetscape treatment were unsuitable for the low-density residential zone.

The panel said it supported a facility for the Dawoodi Bohra Community Masjid community, and described the dedicated kitchen for food distribution and Saturday classes as worthy of support. But it found the 68 Kihilla Road site unsuitable for the kitchen and classroom uses together. A single-storey kitchen facility for food distribution alone might be possible.

A fresh application treating 68 Kihilla Road and the mosque site as one interrelated development would be required to consider additional uses and changed operations, including parking at the mosque. People who lodged submissions are to be notified of the determination.