The battle at Normandy

The battle at Normandy

Residents of the Normandy Building, located between Darlinghurst Road and Earl Place, are petitioning City of Sydney to refuse a restaurant development underneath their apartment block.

The residents are worried the restaurant will not only increase noise in the late night district but also emit bad smells.

But the property owner and developer of the restaurant, Adam Davis, has hit back at these claims.

“The proposed restaurant use is more in-keeping with the area today than previous uses, which have included a licensed brothel, a licensed peep show and an adult book shop,” he said.

“We would welcome the opportunity to talk with surrounding residents and explain to them what we are proposing. Unfortunately the strata manager of the above residential strata plan has not returned our calls and our requests for a meeting with the executive committee have been denied.”

But James Voss and Jake Docker from the executive committee of the Normandy said the committee had not been contacted about any such meetings.

“There’s been no request for a meeting,” Mr Docker said.

Mr Davis posed the question to residents as to whether they would “prefer another late night licensed brothel operating in the area, with the clientele that an establishment like that attracts, or a properly run restaurant that closes at midnight?”

When Mr Davis’ question was put to Mr Voss he said: “I certainly can’t say that the rest of the building would side with me, but I think that a brothel would be preferable to a licensed restaurant with 95 patrons.”

Mr Voss, a professional musician who has lived in the Normandy for six years, said the premises hadn’t been as a brothel while he lived here. He said that the smells from restaurant cooking would be a serious problem in the art deco apartment’s single stairwell and the noise created would be worsened by wooden floorboards laid throughout the building.

The Development Application is now under consideration by the council.

 

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