Infill Push Targets Commercial Sites at Sydney’s Mona Vale, Narraweena

Six of the apartments will be affordable homes, using state infill housing rules on a 1447sq m triangular site at the edge of the town centre.

The PopovBass-designed scheme will replace the single-storey Mona Vale Telstra Exchange with 23 apartments above three ground-floor shops.

A separate application covers partial demolition of the exchange and a new Telstra equipment room, allowing the apartment project to work around telecommunications infrastructure still needed on the site.

Marketed late in 2024 with mixed-use zoning, a three-year leaseback to Telstra and development upside, the property sold in December for $10.8 million, according to property records.

▲ A rendering of the approved shoptop housing project planned for the former Mona Vale Telstra Exchange.

Provent lists a Mona Vale project, The Junction, as a mixed-use scheme with basement parking, ground-floor retail, four residential levels and about 23 strata apartments.

Northern Beaches Local Planning Panel approved the scheme earlier this month after accepting variations to height, landscaping and deep-soil controls.

The 23 apartments comprise 11 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom homes across four residential levels.

Affordable housing will account for 626.3sq m, or 16 per cent, of the project’s 3915.7sq m gross floor area.

Parking will be in two basement levels accessed from Pittwater Road, while Bungan Lane will carry the residential entry, loading and part of the commercial frontage.

▲ An aerial view of the former Telstra exchange site at Mona Vale.

Approval conditions also require a four-space bike rack near the ground-floor retail entry and electrical conduit through the residential basement levels for future electric vehicle charging.

PopovBass described the building’s corner form as a “prow”, using the site’s unusual shape to mark the shift from Pittwater Road to Mona Vale’s smaller town-centre streets behind it.

The council’s Design and Sustainability Advisory Panel had earlier noted Mona Vale was “undergoing transformation” and said some controls no longer reflected the area’s changing urban reality.

▲ A rendering of the proposed shoptop housing project at Narraweena.

Further south, plans prepared on behalf of Cihan Genc and Mehtap Oncu would add five apartments above retained shops at 64-68 May Road, Narraweena.

Walsh Architects’ scheme keeps three single-storey May Road shops, removes rear structures accessed from Poplar Lane and adds four two-bedroom apartments and one three-bedroom apartment over two levels.

The 520sq m site has about 221sq m of existing retail floor space and an 8.5m height limit, but the proposed vaulted roof reaches 10.52m, requiring approval for an extra 2.04 metres.

BBF Town Planners said the added height was justified by the site’s local shopping-strip role, separation from nearby homes and the broader Dee Why area, where state housing rules allow taller low and mid-rise buildings.

Before its 2023 sale, the May Road property was marketed as a freehold retail investment with residential development upside.