Imperial sends out smoke signals

The long awaited upgrade at the Imperial Hotel has hit yet another snag with the owners and City of Sydney planners in disagreement over the new smoking deck.
The upgrade will proceed but a “misunderstanding” means around 40 smoking patrons could be put out on the street, exacerbating neighbourhood noise and increasing the potential for trouble, licensee Shadd Danesi said.
The hotel’s 52-person smoking deck with noise insulation will be spacious and breezy after city planners put a limit of just 11 customers at a time.
“It’s not enough. Would they rather have these [surplus] people protected by noise insulation, or on the street making noise?” Danesi asked.
“Large numbers of people outside create the possibility of violence on the streets. I don’t want it to end up like Oxford Street.”
The dispute comes down to the interpretation of an acoustic engineer’s report, requested by the city, but which initially lacked a plain English summary.
A summary letter by the engineer explicitly siding with Danesi’s 52-person vision was later provided, but the wheels of council had already been set in motion.
A council spokesman said the planning committee had already been through a public consultation process by the time the clarification was offered.
“The technical acoustic information could not be properly assessed in the time available to ensure impacts on the surrounding residents and neighbours were eliminated,” the spokesman said.
Danesi has the option of seeking an amendment and restarting the consultation process, or taking the council to the Land and Environment Court as he had done previously to successfully protect the Imperial’s 24-hour licence.
The application for the 52-person smoking deck has so far taken nine months; and almost four years has passed since the hotel renovations were first held up by the licence dispute.
Danesi said he didn’t want the hotel upgrades to be delayed any longer and hoped council would “see common sense”.
“Defending these issues is a waste of council costs. This isn’t in anyone’s interest; not the patrons’, not the neighbours’, not the city’s,” he said.
Vote: Is space for 11 smokers at the Imperial enough? Vote in our poll at www.ssonet.com.au.