Maroubra’s seven-apartment proposal refused over six-storey street frontage

A seven-apartment proposal at 62 Mons Avenue, Maroubra, has been refused unanimously after the Randwick Local Planning Panel found its height, bulk and setbacks were incompatible with the low-density residential area.

DA/526/2026 sought approval to demolish existing buildings and remove trees for a five-storey residential flat building containing seven three-bedroom dwellings. The plan also included a single basement level with 10 car spaces and two motorcycle spaces, along with renovations to the existing swimming pool and pool cabana.

The panel said the building would present as six storeys to Mons Avenue, with excessive massing and a poor transition to adjoining two- and three-storey dwellings. It found the shallow side setbacks, oversized balconies, blade walls and inefficient floorplate produced a form more akin to an R3 or R4 development than the modest transitional uplift intended for R2 low-density residential land.

Judith Sidley, Lothar Metzner and Borisav Kokanovic addressed the panel as objectors before it deliberated. The panel agreed with the Council officers’ recommendation and the Randwick Design Excellence Advisory Panel’s concerns about missing contextual documentation, excessive scale, inadequate setbacks, inefficient massing and insufficient landscaping along the site’s sides.

The refusal reasons also cited inadequate visual privacy, compromised solar access, non-compliant building separation and a failure to provide compliant deep soil. The panel said the proposed excavation, which was close to neighbouring properties, had not been shown to avoid detrimental effects on adjoining land, structures or drainage patterns.

The panel assessed the proposal under the Randwick Local Environmental Plan 2012, State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021 and the Apartment Design Guide. It said the guide had heightened significance where individual low-density residential localities lacked specific controls, including its guidance on increasing side setbacks as building height rises.

Consent was refused under section 4.16 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. Any further action would be for the applicant under applicable planning processes, with no specific follow-up action stated.