The group of buildings around the site and on-site parking
15 The building is part of a group of 1920-1930's walk-up apartments at Nos.93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 105, 107 and 109 Ramsgate. Numbers 97 and 107 are on the north and south of the subject building respectively, and like No.105 are perched just above the rock shelf of the ocean shore. Number 95 is north of No. 97 and also perches above the rock shelf. Just uphill of them are Nos. 93, 99, 101 and 109, the four of which front Ramsgate Avenue.
16 These eight buildings are served by 3 driveways off Ramsgate between Nos. 93-99, Nos. 99-101 and Nos.101-109. The driveways are composed of parts of Torrens Title allotments on which each building sits. The ocean front buildings are on "battleaxe" shaped lots. The access handles from the street to the buildings, however, are only about 1.2 m wide within the driveways.
17 The lots and the buildings were built apparently before automobile access was a significant consideration. The side setbacks of the buildings in the driveways vary from about 1.2 m to 3.5 m. There are some Rights of Carriageway, but due to the lack of manoeuvring space, I was told, the only practical way the buildings can have vehicle access and parking is by an informal arrangement of building owners acquiescing to trespass of persons and vehicles over their parts of the driveways.
18 The driveways in from the street have only about 4 m width between the buildings, but due to recesses in some parts of the buildings, there are some parking spaces there. Numbers 99, 101 and 109 have a small number of garages underneath, accessed off the driveways.
19 In between the buildings fronting Ramsgate and the buildings fronting the ocean, there is a wider gap of about 7.5 m. In this space residents with small cars can get angled parking via a mutually agreed 1-way circulation route. Apparently the system works due to most residents knowing each other's cars and apartments, or leaving their unit or phone number on their car, so that any difficulties can be overcome.
20 The Bondi Beach area is notorious for congested parking, and Ramsgate is no different. The residents said when the street is parked out, beachgoers often try to park in this private parking area, but this is usually prevented due to residents knowing each other's cars. Already on the sites of the 8 apartment buildings there are not enough car spaces for the residents' vehicles.
21 The relevance of this arose in evidence that the buildings fronting the ocean have a setback of about 6 m from their boundaries within this parking area. The remainder of the 7.5 m width between the buildings is on other allotments. Currently these areas and driveways are wall-to-wall concrete between buildings. The subject building proposes to use part of its 6 m setback space for private courtyards outside renovated units on the ground floor, and partly for 2 parallel parked full sized car spaces. This would displace the existing area used by 4 small cars diagonally parked, but still allow the 1-way circulation route across the site.
22 Most if not all cars seen on site during the Hearing were small cars, the parking and manoeuvring constraints being the probable reason.
23 The applicant says that there will be one less unit in the building (Unit 9 being added to the penthouse Unit 8), and the same number of bedrooms, and therefore no increased demand for car parking.
24 Due to the demand for on-site resident parking and the lack of on-street parking, and the dependence of all residents on mutual acquiescence to the use of the driveways, the reduction of the number of car spaces constitutes one of the main objections to the proposal.