Council knocks back proposal for Australia’s biggest brothel

City of Sydney unanimously denied the development of Australia’s largest brothel in Camperdown in a Council meeting earlier this week.

The proposal, which would have doubled the size of Stiletto Brothel on Parramatta Road, was rejected on the grounds that the surrounding area has changed into a residential zone.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP said although the development application was on land zoned as ‘mixed use’, the development was inconsistent with Council’s vision for the city.

“I’m concerned about the impact of a brothel this size will have on nearby residents,” she said at the meeting. “It is the size that is of great concern . . . mixed zone use should be about suitability.”

Ms Moore said the development application violated a number of Council policies and opposed the City’s 2030 plan for the area.

Long-term resident Tim Barrett said the development was in breach of the Local Environment Plan’s anti-brothel clustering policy.

The regulation restricts brothels from developing within 75 metres of one another. Mr Barrett said the size of the development is effectively building two brothels right on top of each other.

Mr Barrett also said there was a lack of appropriate notification from the City.

“We weren’t notified in our building that the DA had been put in,” he said. “The fact that they didn’t find it necessary to tell us got our backs up.”

Resident from nearby Larkin Street, Eric Lee, said Stiletto had been the cause of conflicts with residents in the past and a larger development would have added to the problem.

“We did know there was a brothel when we moved in. Five years on and there have been several incidents,” he said. “[There are] drunk patrons in the early hours of the morning . . . sometimes on my way to work. One customer waved to drink with me, and when I declined I got verbally abused.”

Representative of the building owners of 1-3 Larkin Street, Tony Irvine, praised the Council’s decision.

“They showed a lot of empathy towards our concerns and also expressed their own concerns,” he said. “It was good to hear they were supportive of a residential community which is growing with a large number of families.”

Mr Irvine said the area has come a long way in the past five years and had the potential to be used for student housing or housing for civil servants.

Stiletto Brothel were contacted but were unavailable for comment.