Bass Strait Views Pty Ltd has succeeded at VCAT (the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) on all objections to the planning department of the East Gippsland Shire Council in regards to works on its Golf Links Road site.
The issue fought at VCAT was changes to a granted planning permit made after its conditions had been agreed with the applicant.
VCAT, after a formal hearing, found in favour of Bass Strait Views on all counts.
Bass Straight Views are planning to develop a major petrol retailing and associated convenience services project at the junction of the Princes Highway and Golf Links Road in Lakes Entrance.
Bass Strait Views was successful in obtaining a planning permit for the project from the East Gippsland Shire in mid 2017.
The permit was issued after numerous meetings with the shire’s planning department over a fifteen-month period according to Bass Strait Views director and shareholder, Benito Guzzardi.
“We engaged leading engineering, town planning and other specialist consultants to formulate the project to the highest possible standard,” Mr Guzzardi said.
“We believed we had reached a negotiated position with the shire so that our project could proceed almost immediately. This would create a significant investment that would benefit many aspects of the Lakes and district community.
“Notwithstanding a declaration from the shire’s director of planning – ‘that he had mandated to the planning staff that there were to be no surprises in approved planning permits for applicants’.
“Bass Strait Views was surprised to find that an entirely new condition had been inserted in the approved planning permit, when it was granted and put before councillors for final approval.
“This was to require the full design and construction of Golf Links Road to the shire’s specification and for us to pay 50 per cent of the cost.
“We have pointed out previously that at no stage in all the meetings was this ever raised by any member of the shire’s planning department or their officers.
“Moreover, the planning staff put our application to council for final approval indicating we had agreed to reconstruct Golf Links Road.
“With construction works likely to cost around the order of $400,000, you would expect there would be some formal signed agreement to this effect. The shire was unable to produce it, as it didn’t exist.
“Bass Strait Views elected to contest the shire’s amended planning permit at VCAT. This caused a further protracted delay in getting the project underway, plus the additional costs involved.
“The VCAT decision states that it was not persuaded that the reconstruction of Golf Links Road and the provision of a 1.5 metre wide footpath are the responsibility of Bass Strait Views. Consequently, the shire is directed to amend the permit to remove these conditions.”
VCAT tribunal member, Michael Nelthorpe, who oversaw the hearing, said, among the reasons to delete conditions to reconstruct Golf Links Road and amend the permit to remove these conditions, that increased pedestrian traffic estimates for school children using the road are ill-founded and that the standard of surface of Golf Links Road and level of through traffic doesn’t constitute reconstruction of the road, among other points (see the full decision on the VCAT Tribunal website).
The tribunal (VCAT) determined that the planning permit conditions were legally included.
However, it ultimately decided that there was not enough policy justification, and that there was not enough of a nexus between the council’s permit conditions and the scale of the proposal.
“While we are disappointed for the community, we accept the tribunal’s decision and now look forward to the proponent developing the site and contributing to the Lakes Entrance economy,” East Gippsland Shire director development, Paul Holton, said.
