The Kiama Inn Hotel is set to go back to the future with plans to install a new steel balcony which will sweep around the corner of Terralong and Shoalhaven Streets.

When the local landmark was built in the late 1800s it had a wrought-iron verandah with 13 posts dotted around the footpath on the corner.

Kiama Inn has lodged a development application with Kiama Council, which is on a 28-day public exhibition period until 18 February.

The $990,000 upgrade to the hotel also includes the installation of a new lift to cater for all floors and moving the gaming room to the covered barbecue area in the south-eastern part of the hotel.

If approved, the balcony will encroach on Council land but that is unlikely to be a conflict of interest issue.

Kiama Council’s Director of Strategies and Communities, Ed Paterson, said they were seeking community feedback about the retro design.

“Reinstatement of the double hung verandahs is something that the Kiama Town Centre Study and Development Control Plan certainly encourages,” he said.

“We've just got to work through the finer detail.”

As far as a potential conflict of interest, under the Planning Act, whenever a DA is lodged that includes Council land, or involves an employee or a Councilor, Council is required to hold an extended notification period and submit declaration to say how they will manage the conflict.

The site was initially home to the Fermanagh Hotel, which was built by James Barton in 1849, before the two-storey wooden structure was demolished and replaced four decades later by George Tory, who built a three-story masonry hotel.

Tory’s Hotel included 60 rooms and wrought-iron lattice verandah in the late Victorian era architectural style.

Architect Peter Jay, in his submission to Council, wrote that the proposed development would be beneficial without detracting from the hotel’s historical significance.

“The proposed new gaming room, lift, and balcony at the Kiama Inn Hotel, which involves relocating the existing gaming by converting an existing covered BBQ area, the provision of a new balcony and lift, and associated works, will have no adverse impact on its established heritage significance.

The original concept for the Elan development.

Kiama Council has also reached an agreement with Sydney-based developer Level 33 over the proposed Elan development at Burroul Street which overlooks Surf Beach.

Level 33 initially lodged a DA for a four-storey development with 15 housing units before requesting an additional level with five more residences.

The developer took the matter to the Land and Environment Court and after a conciliation conference, the two parties agreed to a modified plan which will allow for the extra five units on the fifth floor.

“Rather than it being a separate standalone DA it was a new development application that sought to amend the approved development application and we were seeking legal advice around purely the mechanics of how that worked,” Paterson explained.

“The applicant took the matter to court on a deemed refusal and that was the only contention that Council had - just around the mechanics of that process working and through mediation, that was very quickly resolved at little to no expense to both parties.”

The NSW Government changed the height controls as part of its low-mid rise reforms and Elan fits the criteria for a five-storey development as an R3 zone piece of land as it is just within 800 metres of the town centre.