The Penshurst Mosque has been given approval to build new first-floor and ground floor-additions, a new doomed roof, and a 16-metre high minaret on its premises at 445 Forest Road.
Last week, the Georges River Local Planning Panel granted consent to the changes despite a recommendation by Georges River Council that it be refused.
The local planning panel found the granting of consent would be in the public interest.
But the panel placed conditions on approval, limiting the number of people using the mosque to 250 at any time.
The mosque will have to submit a separate development application for “temporary use” when crowds are expected to exceed 250 people at religious festivals, Islamic holidays, festive events and open days.
The mosque also had to submit a Plan of Management, which includes the condition limiting the number of people to 250, and which will be reviewed by the council every two years.
The application was submitted by the Islamic Society Hurstville which costed the works at $580,000.
Matters raised in support of the application included the fact the mosque provides social programs for youth in the area, has a good sense of community, and has been operating for a number of years with minimal complaints from the public.
The council received a total of 1531 submissions and a petition with 608 signatures.
Back to September 2016 when the then Georges River Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel deferred the application for a traffic management report and a new plan of management showing how the number of people will be limited to 250.
The council’s parking survey found the number of illegally parked cars in surrounding streets during busy mosque hours.
The mosque’s own traffic study said the mosque’s increased floor space of the mosque would require the equivalent of 19 on-street parking spaces.
But the Penshurst Action Group prepared its own traffic study which said the number of additional car spaces required would be 48.
Because of the variation, the council did its own traffic study
This described the current parking situation at the mosque “intolerable” with a parking occupancy rate of “156 per cent” along St Georges Road during high activity at the mosque.
“While there is little that can be done about the existing situation, it is unacceptable to contemplate any increase in floor area that could potentially increase the capacity of the mosque and exacerbate the existing traffic and parking issues,” the council report stated.
The site is zoned of SP2 - Infrastructure and is listed in the Hurstville Local Environmental Plan as a church.
Some objectors said the design of the mosque would be incompatible with the surrounding area.
The panel found there was no coherent architectural style in the surrounding area which is a mixture of three and four storey flats.
“Although the design of the building is different architecturally from these surrounding uses, it is not considered to have any significant detrimental impact on amenity,” the panel’s report stated.
There were worries that the height of the minaret was excessive and would dominate the streetscape.
“It is not uncommon for places of public worship to have distinctive architectural features that have a greater height than surrounding buildings,” the report stated.
“Although the height of the minaret is greater than surrounding buildings, it does not have a detrimental impact on any surrounding property.
“There is no intention to use the minaret for broadcasting of any nature including the call for prayer. To further ensure this, a condition has been recommended that the minaret is not used for any purpose.”
The panel was of the opinion the development would provide a better amenity and separate worship areas and would not result in a significant increase in the number of worshippers or traffic generation of the site.
The panel noted that the premises had been in opeartong for a long time. The Penshurst Mosque was built in 1989 by the Australian-Bosnian community.
“The grant of the development consent now regulates the use of the premises and provides the council with the ability to enforce the maximum number of worshipers within the premises and provides the council with the opportunity to reassess the use of the premises for religious festivals and Islamic holidays,” the report stated.
