Whale Beach locals up in arms about proposed 170-seat restaurant
Whale Beach locals are unhappy with the idea of the now-closed Whale Beach Deli kiosk expanding into a 170-seat restaurant.
The redevelopment was proposed by owners of the property, the Cassar tourism industry family.
Locals have inundated Northern Beaches Council with concerns about traffic, noise, parking and a general disturbance of the peace.
“Road rage is not unusual along this thin strip of Whale Beach Road,” wife of television presenter Mike Munro, Lea Cleary wrote. “If this proposal is allowed to go ahead, traffic will become far more choked and frustrating – along with the help of laws that allow drinking until 10pm.”
Another complaint came from merchant banker Mike Crivelli, who purchased his Whale Beach Road home in 2006 for $7.2 million, fearing for people’s safety.
“The road down to the beach ... is a tight dogleg, narrow and congestion makes it dangerous,” Crivelli warned. “Lives could be lost.”
According to Anthony Cassar, who spoke to the Herald, the complainants were overreacting to the size of the proposed restaurant.
“They’re myopic in their approach and they’re not looking at the bigger picture. The outcome from the trouble they’re stirring up could be there’s no restaurant at all,” Cassar said.
“That might make the immediate neighbours very happy, but everyone else in the wider neighbourhood will be very unhappy that they won’t be able to have a nice eatery there.”
Cassar who runs the family company Aviation Online and whose father Les Cassar chaired Tourism NSW in the 2000s, said, if the proposal was approved, he hoped the Boathouse Group who ran the original kiosk, would run the restaurant.
A public meeting of the Northern Beaches Local Planning Panel will consider the matter shortly.
Irit Jackson, 21st June 2022
