UPDATE 13.10.10 - COUNCIL MEETING RESULTS
Following a significant meeting at Sydney Town Hall on Monday night (11.10.10) - Oxford Art Factory boss Mark Gerber is confident that sanity will prevail and that an amended daytime use of the OAF can be negotiated with the City of Sydney Council.
At first looking as if the venue would need a completely new and costly DA application for its daytime trade amendment, the meeting highlighted a breakdown in communication between the town planning officers and the OAF’s application planners. Mark Gerber, with friends and staff of the venue in the wings as witnesses, gave a passionate speech that emphasised the OAF’s commitment to live music and the arts. Councillor Doutney was quick to add her support, questioning why the council was stuck on technicalities when it should be supporting every endeavour of the Oxford Art Factory.
The sticking point was that council’s report incorrectly read the application as being substantially different to the original DA consent. Despite the confusion, Oxford Art Factory will always be an art-based venue.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore concluded the hearing by stating that the council does support live music and the OAF. Oxford Art Factory has been asked to come up with a new amended Section 96 condition to satisfy the council. Mark Gerber is now in the process of drafting this condition with the OAF’s legal team.
A further update will be made available as soon as more progress is made. Stay tuned!
Mark Gerber and the Oxford Art Factory would like to personally thank everyone for their ongoing support in the lead up to the hearing.
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CAN YOU SPARE A MINUTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE MUSIC VENUE?
The Oxford Art Factory currently has two DAs in consideration with the City of Sydney Council. The first application seeks to do away with the requirement for a trial period for late night trade, and the second one to allow us to provide entertainment during the day.
As part of the normal notification process, the OAF has come under attack from residents who are blaming us for all of the ills of Oxford Street. It could put our entire operation in jeopardy if Council follows this line and then opts to increase our already onerous security regime or reduce our trading hours.
We need your help.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Sign our online petition: http://www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/advocacy-for-the-oxford-art-factory.html
2. Invite your Facebook friends to this event! Send it out as a status update! Spread the word! The URL of the event is: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138794982802568
3. Send an email to the Council, detailing your good experiences with the OAF and the positive benefits you have seen OAF bring to the live music scene in Sydney. If you're short on time, we suggest that you could paste the text from the top of our petition into an email – you can find it here: http://www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/advocacy-for-the-oxford-art-factory.html
All emails need to include the specific DA numbers - Application D/2006/645/D and Application D/2006/645/E.
Please CC Mark Gerber from the venue on any emails of support – markg@oxfordartfactory.com
Council Contacts:
Assessing Council officer, Anthea Kalodikis - akalodikis@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Lord Mayor Clover Moore cmoore@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Phillip Black pblack@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor John McInerney jmcinerney@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Marcelle Hoff mhoff@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Di Tornai dtornai@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Robert Kok rkok@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Chris Harris charris@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Irene Doutney idoutney@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor The Hon Dr Meredith Brugmann mburgmann@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Shayne Mallard smallard@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
GOT A QUESTION?
Any questions and feedback are very welcome, and may be addressed to:
Mark Gerber – markg@oxfordartfactory.com
MORE INFO
The Oxford Art Factory recently submitted two applications to the City of Sydney Council. In summary the applications seek to do away with the requirement for a trial period for late night trade and the second one to allow us to provide entertainment during the day.
As part of the normal notification process the OAF has come under attack from residents who are blaming us for all of the ills of Oxford Street. This could put our entire operation in jeopardy if Council follows this line and then opts to increase our already onerous security regime or reduce our trading hours.
We need your help.
Application D/2006/645/D
This application seeks to remove the trial period that applies to our late trading hours between midnight and 6am, 7 days a week. We have operated since early 2007 without incident and the both the Police and Council agree that the OAF is well managed.
Under the City of Sydney's Late Night Trading Premises DCP for each continuation of a trial period, each subsequent trial is supposed be made longer, up to 5 years. But because of the large queues that result prior to and at the cessation of each show Council has previously refused to grant longer trial periods. Being a popular live music venue located next to 3 other popular nights spots including The Gaff, The Exchange Hotel and Q Bar, this problem will never be resolved. This forces us to undertake - at a large cost - the preparation of a development application each year for little good reason. Given our demonstrated and accepted good management we do not see why we should be punished for providing a popular live music venue for the people of Sydney.
It has been leveled at us by residents that patrons of the OAF block the Oxford Street footpath all night, stagger drunkenly on to the road, fight and leave the strip in a mess of vomit and rubbish. Anyone of you who have attended our venue knows this is simply not true.
Application D/2006/645/E
In this application we have proposed to delete condition 1(c). This condition prevents us from providing any form of entertainment between 11am and 6pm and restricts us to trading as an art house cinema or art gallery only during these hours. We want to delete this condition so that we can provide entertainment, private functions or other similar events during the day. The benefit to the industry and young artists is that we can provide access (which we often do free of charge and open age) on a day where there is a high demand for entertainment, such as Saturday or Sunday. As a business we simply cannot afford the same level of access on a Saturday or Friday night free of charge and open age.
Residents and Council are concerned that by deleting the above condition we will cease to trade as a live music venue and operate solely as a nightclub. You all know this is not the case. With all the amazing acts that have appeared at the OAF and that continue to show interest and the popularity of the venue why would we need to change? Why would we want to change?
We hope that you can voice your support for the Oxford Art Factory by detailing your good experiences and the positive benefits you have seen to the live music scene in Sydney. You can email the assessing Council officer, Anthea Kalodikis, on akalodikis@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au as well as all the Councillors (please see below).
Lord Mayor Clover Moore cmoore@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Phillip Black pblack@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor John McInerney jmcinerney@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Marcelle Hoff mhoff@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Di Tornai dtornai@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Robert Kok rkok@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Chris Harris charris@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Irene Doutney idoutney@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor The Hon Dr Meredith Brugmann mburgmann@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Shayne Mallard smallard@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me.
Sincerely,
Mark Gerber.