08/11/2025
Not again…
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Vq3qttBpB/?mibextid=wwXIfr
We are often fed that threat of developers litigating against council for any rejected applications will cost council $$$ in appeals.
I call bulls**t.
In 2022, I appealed the approval of the design of the Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade on a number of aspects - heritage, traffic, visual amenity, architecture, and economics.
We provided the courts with the relevant expert witnesses, as did the developer. The judge ruled in the developer’s favour.
We were granted a condition that demolition could not proceed without certification and based on the approved design.
The judge made clear to the developer that the courts ruled that the developer was not to approach council for further changes beyond their design.
Now, 2-3 years later, I find a surprise email from developers stating they’re appealing the court ruling, and that as appellant in original hearing, that I’m listed as a respondent, alongside state and local governments.
The developer wants more car parking spaces and changes to floorplan on a couple of levels.
I discover that the developers have actually gone hat in hand to council more than once to change design since that ruling. Council has staved them off until this appeal.
So when council’s planning officers are pressed to approve developments lest they end up in courtrooms…this site has proven that even when developers win appeals, they’ll still go ahead to seek approval that goes above and beyond their approvals granted by courts, to keep going back for more.
This raises the question of when developers apply for designs to be approved, whether they’ll stop once granted by council or in courts.
Are developers lodging applications they know are infeasible, hoping for no pushback, then applying for further changes?
Does council have the guts to tell developers that enough is enough?
We’ll be back in court on 21 November.
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