An artist's impression of the boarding house proposed for Gray Street, Kogarah.
Plans for a five-storey, 43-room boarding house to be built at 69 Gray Street, Kogarah will be considered by the Georges River Council Local Planning Panel next week.
The $4.3 million project will include accommodation for four single lodger rooms, 38 double lodger rooms plus a manager’s room, bringing the building’s total capacity to 77 residents.
Basement parking would have the capacity to house ten cars and nine motorcycle spaces. There would be an outdoor communal terrace on level two.
The 668sqm site is located on the corner of Gray Street and Princes Lane and is currently the site of a single-storey dwelling.
The proposal is permitted under the R3 Medium density zoning.
It also meets the requirements of the State Environmental Planning Policy for Affordable Rental Housing.
Council staff have recommended approval despite receiving 21 submissions raising a number of concerns.
These included traffic, noise and privacy impacts, overshadowing, building height non-compliance, and lack of required landscaping.
Objectors also said there was insufficient information regarding the owners and their ability to operate a boarding house development.
After the DA was lodged, the applicant amended plans to delete two boarding rooms and change landscaping.
The council requested further design changes to minimise the impacts on surrounding properties.
The applicant was also requested to amend the design of the development to maximise the number of east-facing rooms and adding skylights to several rooms.
The five-storey proposal does not comply the with maximum of four storeys identified under the development control plan but council staff found this acceptable as the firth storey is set back 6.5-metres from the front boundary and four metres from the southern boundary.
The five-storeys is contained within the 15-metre building height set by the Local Environmental Plan standard.
The council report said the development meets the residential medium density objectives of the zoning and was of an appropriate scale and form for the site and character of the locality.
The DA goes before the Georges River Council Local Planning Panel for consideration on Thursday, April 19.