Use of Innovation Plaza as external Brewdog pub seating – Exhibition until 20 January

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Use of
Innovation Plaza as external Brewdog pub seating – Exhibition until 20 January 

If
you have been to the pub in Bays 1 & 2 North, you will notice that there is
seating in Innovation Plaza even though the DA for this seating has yet not
been approved. The pub is operating on a temporary basis in accordance with the
post-Covid provisions of State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and
Complying Development Codes) 2008 which permit temporary outdoor dining in areas across Sydney
until 31 December 2023. 

The
approval for permanent use of Innovation Plaza for this use
is currently on exhibition as a State Significant Development Modification (Mod
11) for the Locomotive Workshops rather than a DA through Council. The long
term use proposal is on exhibition until January Friday 20 January 2023. 

We have posted the Council submission for this DA on the REDWatch website – Council Submission on Innovation Plaza Seating Exhibition until 20 Jan 2023. Council have raised a number of concerns especially about the proposed operation after 10pm.

Patrons
and neighbours will have the opportunity over Christmas and New Year to form a
view on the application for this long-term use and make a submission through the major
projects’ website. 

Innovation Plaza – a planning shemozzle – REDWatch Comment

State
and Council planning are always in a complex dance when the NSW Government
decides that the Department of Planning (DPE) should make the big planning
decisions rather than Council. In the case of South Eveleigh, DPE handle the
decisions about the redevelopment of the Locomotive Workshop but leave the use
DA to the City of Sydney Council.  

In
the case of Innovation Plaza, Mirvac wanted to put built structures and seating
into Innovation Plaza, so they put a State Significant Development Application
to DPE which was exhibited as Mod 7. REDWatch objected in our REDWatch Submission on Loco Mod 7
encroachment on Public Space on the grounds that the
public space is presumably protected by easements and positive covenants put in
place by UrbanGrowth. REDWatch approached the Council planners to see if
Council would enforce the easement that was enforceable only by them. We were
advised that Council supported such activation so would not enforce the
easement. 

In
the end the State Significant Development over-rode the protections put in
place by UrbanGrowth and the public recreation zone land zoning. The approval
permitted a scaled back use of Innovation plaza for seating and some removable
structures. The final use approval was to be made by the relevant consent
authority which would normally be Council as it was for the operation of the
pub. 

It
turns out that Council could not deal with the DA because, as the current
application explains: “Innovation Plaza is located in a public recreation zone
where the proposed food and drink premises use is prohibited and in which the
City of Sydney does not have the ability to approve the proposal or a footway
dining application. The NSW Department of
Planning and Environment (The Department) has the ability to approve the
proposed use in Innovation Plaza under section 4.38 of the Environmental
Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act). Accordingly, the application
is made as a modification to SSD 8517 rather than as a DA to the City of
Sydney”.  

So,
rather than a DA being assessed by the Council’s planning panel, we have a
further modification to the SSDA because only DPE has the power to over-ride
the prohibited use restriction, which is in the land use zoning that DPE
decided was OK to over-ride when it dealt with the earlier Modification. 

Irrespective
of what your views are about on street dining and street drinking or the use of
Innovation Plaza for such purposes, there are questions about what purpose do
“protections” like land use zoning, easements and positive covenants really
provide to the community if Council planners don’t seek to enforce them and
state government over-rides them. The winner out of all this is likely to be
Mirvac South Eveleigh and maybe its tenant, Brewdog pub, which look likely to
get an extra 220 pub seats in a public recreation zone which it is not paying
rent on. It’s a good deal if you can get it! 

As
we have said in the previous section, people have the opportunity over
Christmas and New Year to form a view on this use of Innovation Plaza and to make a submission through the major projects’
website until January Friday 20 January 2023.