Mod 3

I write to object the DA for a rooftop bar in the Clare Hotel.
The original DA was for a rooftop pool for hotel guests. The new DA for 150 people would cause undue noise and stress for Central Park residents in both the East Tower, Levels 4 and up and 8 Park Lane residents who have views of the Clare Hotel rooftop. Privacy issues for residents who are in full view of rooftop patrons is another major issue. The hours of operation till 10pm would also have a major impact on residents every night as patrons and music noise levels would impact on the peace and quiet and sleep time. An unauthorised rooftop event late last year highlighted all of these issues to residents. Every consideration to maintain the amenity of residents of Central Park must be met. It is unreasonable to expect that residents of Central Park will not be affected if this rooftop bar is built, rather the constant noise, patrons behaviour and visual impact will cause unacceptable living conditions for many of those residents who look out onto the Clare Hotel rooftop.

The proposed roof top bar concept at Old Clare will have a significantly adverse impact on my life. This is in relation to noise, light, but also the amount of people disturbing my privacy in my home. My apartment at Central Park is the place I live, but also the place I work (as a home office). This is not uncommon at Central Park due to the high number of entrepreneurs in residence.

With the Old Clare already having illegally operated this bar in 2016, these impacts have already been felt for a period of three months. During this time I was not able to open apartment windows, could not open blinds, and had drunk people yelling at me whenever the blinds were lifted. It affected my life and that of my young family in these adverse physical terms. However, most alarmingly it was beginning to have a profound psychological impact on me personally. Imagine not being able to look outside, see the sun, or have fresh air between the hours of midday to 10pm. This is not a situation that can be tolerated under any circumstances.

The position of Old Clare amongst one of Sydney's biggest residential complexes means that this type of venue is simply not appropriate. There is already a clear demonstration of the image, which was seen in early 2016. This also shows that venue operators cannot be trusted to run a bar of this type in a responsible and sensitive manner. In fact, they visually flaunt the 'big green building' as their backdrop to an otherwise bland venue.

I strongly urge you to deny this application. Otherwise there is going to be a huge amount of serious adverse impact on residents at Central Park. Meanwhile, I do not object this rooftop pool being used solely for hotel in-house residents, as it was originally intended.

Disruptive noise to residents here!

For your urgent attention:
This submission has 4 .pdf & 3 video .mov files

Hi, I am Benjamin Richard Malter of 907/3 Carlton St, Chippendale. I am currently an owner/occupier of an apartment on the ninth floor of 3 Carlton St Chippendale, known as ONE Central Park East (OCPE) ("the apartment"). I live in this apartment with my wife Natalie, who regularly works from home.

I am also the strata committee chair person and have been living at the OCPE building since the building finished construction in November 2013. The Old Clare Hotel was refurbished with a new rooftop pool area constructed for hotel guests completed in 2015

The OCPE building is located across the street from the Old Clare Hotel. A laneway (Carlton St) runs between the Old Clare Hotel and the OCPE. The apartment is located directly opposite the Old Clare Hotel and approximately two (2) to three (3) floors above the Old Clare Hotel rooftop pool area ("the rooftop"). It is my understanding that the rooftop area is for guest only. My bedroom and living room are oriented directly opposite to the rooftop and both rooms face out over the rooftop as do many other units in OCPE.

The apartment has floor-to-ceiling glass double glazed sliding doors that when opened, extend the living room into the outdoor area. This design feature is also used in the bedroom. The sliding glass doors are my windows for my apartment if I need fresh air. The inside/outside living design is a big part of the amenity and footprint of the living areas of the apartment and the accessibility to my green plants that are part of the iconic design of One Central Park East, and therefore it is not feasible to keep the glass doors closed all the time.

Attached File: 01_OCPE_907_LivingroomBedroomProximity.pdf

When there are 20 or more people on the rooftop, the noise caused from the chatter alone (not including music) requires me to close my glass door windows. When numbers on the rooftop are double this the chatter noise comes into my unit while my double glazed sliding glass door windows are closed.

There have been times when less than ten people have caused intrusive noise with my sliding glass doors open on the rooftop that i have a video with sound submission for NSW planning.


Problems with noise during 2016

This hotel rooftop pool amenity for guests was used as a alcohol serving bar entertainment venue with DJ music and large numbers of people in March and December 2016 that is under investigation by NSW planning that i have been assisting and have provided a witness statement.

I observed the Hotel advertising showing the rooftop opened as a public bar on the 26th of January 2016 and also observed events advertised for the period between the 10th of March to the 20th of March detailing a 100 person capacity with DJ.

Attached File: 02_OldClareHotel_January26thMarch10th2016_Adverts.pdf

In the weeks leading up to 13 March 2016, I observed from my apartment that there were at times up to and in exceeding of 100 people on the rooftop, sometimes with loud music, approximately 4 or 5 days per week. Typically the hours of operation were between 12:00 midday and 10:00 pm. The busiest times were Thursdays through to Sundays. The bar and entertainment venue activities during this period of time progressively became bigger and louder. From my apartment I heard noise including pool use, music and crowd chatter during these above times of operation, at excessive and intrusive levels. As a result of the noise coming from the rooftop, I was required to close the glass doors in the bedroom and living room all the time. For example, the noise generated from the rooftop was loud enough to drown out the T.V. in the living room when the glass doors were open, and prevent sleep in the bedroom when the glass doors were open and sometimes when closed depending on the amount of people on the rooftop.

The noise from the rooftop causes me stress and irritability and I am concerned that the noise generated from the rooftop when it is being used as a bar and entertainment venue will have a substantial negative affect on the value of my apartment.

I have 2 submission videos for NSW planning showing this March 13th event from my unit 907 and another unit 708 with the noise recorded.

On 13 March 2016 I made a noise complaint with the City of Sydney Council and spoke to an officer named `Nick' (Nick Pitchuev). I said words to the effect of " it feels like I'm standing at the bar about to yell over someone to order a drink." In response to my complaint, Nick said words to the effect that he "would visit the hotel and talk to them."

Attached File: 03_OldClareHotel_March13th2016_EmailToCouncil.pdf

The building has an electronic noticeboard intranet referred to as "the Hub" for residents to post correspondence and email each other directly. On 13 March 2016 I wrote to the Hub and I found other residents were experiencing the same issues related to the rooftop and that they had made complaints directly to the Old Clare Hotel.

I did not observe the rooftop operating as a bar and entertainment venue from the day after my noise complaint to the City of Sydney until December 2016.

In December 2016 the rooftop had recommenced operating as a bar and entertainment venue, with large numbers of people. I made a complaint to Nick from the City of Sydney Council on the 17th of December with a photo from the bar open and in use that day.

On the 22nd of December 2016 my wife was at home and messaged me at work in the afternoon to inform me that there was a noisy event occurring at the rooftop and requested that I take action to address the return of the noisy rooftop activities. She sent me a photo showing the bar in use with more people than on the 17th of December.

Attached File: 04_OldClareHotel_December17th22nd_EmailToCouncil.pdf

I was upset that the rooftop was being used as a bar and entertainment venue again on a regular basis and creating unacceptable levels of noise. I phoned the Old Clare Hotel the same afternoon my wife called me at work and I requested to speak to the duty manager. I then spoke to a person whom I believe was the Duty Manager of the Old Clare Hotel. The Duty Manager apologized and said words to the effect of "this is the last party of the year and I will try and keep it down".
When I returned home from work in the evening, the event on the rooftop was still going. I was unsure if this was an event open to the general public or a private event, however the impacts of the noise were significant. I could hear dull chatter noise when I walked in the door and my windows sliding glass doors were closed. I was not able to open my sliding glass doors while the event was still going. I have not observed the rooftop being used as a bar and entertainment venue since this time.

In Conclusion it is now February 2017 I have spoken with around 20 owner occupiers in OCPE that face The Old Clare hotel rooftop that are against this DA such as I am due to proximity, noise affecting living and health, privacy and our resale value.

If anything the hotel should be putting in measures to protect the neighbouring residents who have been living here prior to the rooftop being constructed from noise it can easily generate by a mere few guests staying at the hotel making noise with no bar on the rooftop considering our bedrooms and living rooms are less than a stone toss away. Please reject this DA and stop this rooftop guest pool turning into an alcohol serving bar entertainment venue noting that the hotel already has a bar downstairs.

Kind regards,

Ben Malter

Please see attached submission on behalf of SP 88765

Please find attached amended submission on behalf of SP 88765. It will supersede the submission originally provided by LPDS today.

As a resident of 3 Carlton Street, East Tower Central Park, living in such close to the Old Clare Hotel I am strongly against this proposal. For a period of 5 months from November 2015 to March 2016 the Old Clare Rooftop Pool & Bar was illegally operating its bar to the public and it caused a massive negative impact on living in my apartment. The bar was in use from 12pm to 10pm 7 days a week and having a high volume of people using this space 7 days a week from 12pm to 10pm caused a huge impact on the ability to live in my apartment from the intrusion of privacy and noise.

In terms of privacy, it heavily impacted on my ability to open the apartment windows and I had to have the blinds shut when the bar was in use, which was 7 days a week 12pm to 10pm. If you familiarise yourself with the design of Central Park East Tower, the design has been created to maximise light with floor to ceiling windows. Additionally the nature of the design of the building with all the beautiful plants meant that when the bar was operating it attracted the public outside to the neighbourhood who wanted to take photo's of Central Park East Tower which was another huge invasion of my privacy. As I live just two floors up from the Old Clare Rooftop, if I stood looking out of my window I used to get people waving at me from the bar, which was a horrible thing to face when you are trying to live in your apartment. As a result, having the Old Clare Rooftop Bar open significantly impacted on the ability to live in my apartment and resulted in a huge invasion of privacy.

During the period of the Old Clare Rooftop being open to the public (Nov 2015 - March 2016), I experienced a significant impact from the noise produced from the rooftop. Living in such close proximity to the Old Clare Rooftop where only a narrow road divides the two buildings and I am just two floors up from the Old Clare Rooftop meant that the noise created from 100 people on the rooftop impacted on my ability to have my apartment windows open which meant that I could not ventilate my apartment with natural air. As mentioned previously, the design of the windows of Central Park East Tower are floor to ceiling which means to open the windows you have to slide the entire glass panel across which results in a large surface area of the window being open for noise. When the Old Clare Rooftop bar was in use there was a huge impact felt even when windows were closed as the atmosphere of the rooftop created a pool party vibe with patrons talking loudly and screaming and was like this for the entire period it was open. Not only was I impacted by the noise caused by the crowd but was also impacted by the music and DJ's setup for all-day weekend parties. This heavily impacted on my ability to live in my apartment and I had to leave the apartment most days, which negatively impacted on my life.

I sincerely hope you take this evidence into consideration when deciding on this proposal. I have attached evidence of the Old Clare Rooftop Pool & Bar being open to the public last year along with them advertising to the public when they were open. With the impact of this bar already been felt across Central Park residents last years I strongly urge you to take the impact of resident into account. The Old Clare Rooftop was never proposed for use as a public space for partying otherwise I would have never have moved into this building. Evidently the Old Clare Rooftop should be left for use of hotel guests accessing the pool area only as originally intended.

1. PREVIOUS NOISE COMPLAINTS - Since the opening of the hotel and roof bar March 2016, many noise complains made by residents from our building due to the noise created during events being held on the roof top, although it was only private pool bar was applied in the original DA approval. The large number of noise complaints to council and telephone logs to the hotel operation manager has already shown that the hotel fail in managing the noise level and the event in this area. And this will only be worse for allowing now 150 patrons/public and till 10pm 7days.
2. ACOUSTIC ISSUE - It is noted that there is a discrepancy between the architectural detail and the one in the acoustic report. I will be surprised how the operable sliding glass doors (50% of the dividing walls) in lieu of acoustic details required to be "all gaps are sealed airtight" and materials rating of at NRC 0.8".
3. ACOUSTIC ISSUE (management) - speaker types. I'm not a acoustic professional.From my understanding the treatment required to deal with high and low pitch noise require are different.. and how are the combination of glass walls, skylights and acoustic sofit of the roof structure.
4. 3) BCA COMPLIANCE/FIR EEGRESS - with the extra 150 patron allocated on the roofed area on the top level of a brick building from 1810s, will the current fire egress provisions and/or the current fire engineer report be still compliant...?
5. IMPACT ON SOLAR ACCESS TO LOWER LEVEL OF THE SURROUNDING RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS - with the proposed roof construction higher the existing building, the additional shadow will be reduce the solar access to apartments on levels 4 and 5. The current application does not show any of this concern so far, and this may result in the solar access of this residential tower-Central Park non-compliance to SEPP65 requirements.
6. PRIVACY ISSUE - I have seen the crowd took pictures of our building from the rooftop area (photos attached). Without a doubt, Central Park building has been one of the iconic residential building in Sydney. All east facing areas are to be habitable rooms. With the newly proposal with 150 more patrons and now being open to public, in order to minimize the overlooking and privacy issue, the existing clear windows façade should be covered by screen or the acoustic panels. This would help in reducing the noise issue (item 3 as listed above).