Coogee Bay Hotel developers given extension as community members left “in the dark”

By AMBER GRIFFIN

The developers of the controversial Coogee Bay Hotel upgrades have been granted extended time to resubmit and amend their development plans by the NSW Land and Environment Court.  

The developers now have until September 26 to complete the updated proposal, which will be reviewed in the two weeks before a conciliation hearing with the Land and Environment Court on October 10. The hearings are held in a closed court and the community has restricted access to amendments or information until it goes public. 

The $111.7 million dollar plans to redevelop Coogee Bay Hotel and its surrounds received mixed reactions from the community, with many Coogee residents claiming that if plans go ahead, Coogee will become ‘overdeveloped’ and the historic hotel will be damaged. 

The original development plan DA 437/2021 was submitted by the developers Cotton Development Management Pty Ltd. It included a complete revamp of the heritage-listed site as a “modern hospitality, leisure and entertainment precinct”, along with the construction of 60 apartments, a supermarket, and an eat-street section. 

The hotel is also considering developing an underground car park for 220 vehicles to service guests that will be visiting its new leisure and entertainment precinct.  

Coogee residents campaign to keep developments under 12 metres 

In an attempt to keep Coogee ‘classic and lowkey’ and maintain the integrity of Coogee’s ‘village feel’, community group ‘Keep Coogee a Village’ are campaigning for developments in the suburb to stay under 12 metres in height. 

A spokesperson for the campaign said to City Hub that they “don’t understand why the applicant is being given so many chances” on their proposal for the development.

“The Eastern Sydney Planning Panel has deferred the matter twice as has the Land and Environment Court. As each process is being dealt with in closed sessions, the community is in the dark.”

Their campaign ’12M and no more’ was launched in response to the Coogee Hotel proposal that soars at over 23 metres. 

The spokesperson said the new design for the Coogee Bay Hotel is “not sympathetic to the prevailing federation style of Coogee Bay Road”.

Coogee MP Marjorie O’Neill stated that the plans will “lead to over-development and exceed the buildings height standard for the area.

“We regard these plans as an atrocious overdevelopment of our seaside suburb and our iconic Coogee Beach precinct,” O’Neill said in a statement.  

O’Neill has set up a petition titled ‘Save Coogee Village’, featured on the Labor Government website. As of September 1, the petition had received 1350 submissions. 

In a statement, the developers of the Coogee Bay Hotel said that the project team has met with senior council officers as well as the Design Review Panel on multiple occasions, and the feedback provided by council has assisted with the progression of the design. 

“This proposal represents a considered mixed-use outcome with an integrated design which revitalises the site,” the Coogee Bay Hotel developers said.