MEPA offers legal substitute to illegal beach restaurant on Golden Bay

The owner of the illegal ‘Munchies’ restaurant in the middle of Golden Bay is set to get a permit for a restaurant partly located under the beach’s car park, which will also include a terrace overlooking the picturesque bay.

The case officer’s report calling for an approval of the restaurant claims that the new permit is not meant to provide a “substitute for the offending (illegal) structure”, but acknowledges that this “effectively will be the end result”. 

But the case officer has insisted that the Planning Directorate would still have recommended the project’s approval “had there been a different applicant”.

One of the three reasons for approving the permit is that it will remove the existing kiosk, sited as it is within a Level 1 area of ecological importance.

The proposal involves the construction of a restaurant located under the existing public car park.

The proposal entails digging into the car park to reach the beach level and create an underground space for the new establishment. The main outlet for the new unit will therefore be in line with the current alignment of the retaining wall of the car park, representing the only “façade” of the new establishment at this level.

This proposal was already approved in principle in 2005, but back then the outline permit specified that all structures were to be built under the car park.

The present proposal, which is larger than the illegal restaurant set to be removed, also involves the construction of an access in the existing car park occupying 24 square metres and a terrace to accommodate a number of tables and chairs.

“The newly created terrace will provide an open space overlooking the beach from a higher level, thus providing a belvedere type terrace which will be used for the placing of tables and chairs,” the case officer’s report states. 

The layout of the proposed restaurant includes a customer floor space of 180 square metres, a kitchen and preparation area, bar, stores, freezers and cold room and other ancillary facilities, such as lockers, changing room and toilets for an additional floor area of approximately 340 square metres.

Another reason for the approval of the new restaurant is that both the illegal kiosk on the sandy beach and the staircase leading from the road must be removed. The other reason is that the latest plans limit the structures at ground floor (car park) level to a maximum floor space of 45 square metres.

Some development at basement level will be required to minimize the food safety hazards. A kiosk-type structure will provide access from the car-park.

In 2008, MEPA’s advisory committee on natural heritage demanded the authority stop processing this application because it was in breach of the outline permit, since part of the construction was above road level. Photomontages of the project presented by the applicant in fact show an intensification of cluttered development on the hotel side of the beach.