By Vanessa Cavasinni, editor Australian Hotelier
The Land and Environment Court has dismissed the De Angelis Hotel Group’s appeal to build a pub in the south-west Sydney suburb of Casula.
Liverpool Council had rejected De Angelis' DA to demolish a motor inn on a site on the arterial Hume Highway and build a one-storey pub and a carpark with 160 spaces, after a group of local residents protested that the pub would be 300m away from the local primary school and nursing home, and would increase the instances of alcohol-related violence.
De Angelis appealed the decision, but on 14 December Commissioner Susan O’Neill dismissed the claim, ruling the DA refused.
The Commissioner sided with Liverpool Council, which contended that the proposal would have a negative impact on the community, which it stated had a “highly disadvantaged demography” and a “well above average concentration of people with characteristics that make them vulnerable to elevated levels of alcohol related harm”.
The hotel group argued that the license would be reassigned from the New Commercial Hotel in Liverpool’s CBD, hence not increasing the amount of liquor licenses within the LGA, and removing one of the seven pubs within the CBD.
However Commissioner O’Neill agreed with Liverpool Council’s social planning expert that the New Commercial Hotel was not located within a residential area, and therefore would cause less significant damage to the community than to open a hotel near housing, a primary school, women’s refuges and a nursing home.
TheShout was unable to reach Peter De Angelis for comment on the appeal.
While the appeal loss is a setback for the hotel group, it continues to expand its portfolio in south-west Sydney, recently purchasing Uncle Bucks Hotel from Lantern Group for $25.3 million.