A NEW 10-storey tower may be built at the controversial Endeavour Cove precinct unless the planning minister intervenes.
In September, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal will consider an application for a 10-storey building at 64 Pier One Drive. It will also consider reducing the number of car parking spaces required for the project.
Kingston mayor Steve Staikos has asked the planning minister to call-in the project and grant council interim planning controls it has drafted for the Endeavour Cove site. “We lodged amendment requests for both the interim and permanent planning scheme amendment controls with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in February this year, following public consultation,” he said. “Since that time, our officers have continued to provide all the information the Department has requested, but unfortunately we are yet to receive approval for either the interim controls or the ability to exhibit the permanent controls. Without the interim controls in place, this leaves the prospect of a potentially expensive, time consuming and frustrating VCAT hearing, which is clearly not in the best interests of the community.
“It is extremely important that the minister now exercises her powers to approve the interim controls to establish clarity and certainty moving forward for all involved.”
Since applying for the interim controls the state government has replaced former planning minister Richard Wynne. Newly appointed planning minister Lizzie Blandthorn did not respond to The News’ request for comment by publication deadline.
The Endeavour Cove precinct at Patterson Lakes is subject to complex planning controls. The site’s history dates back to the 80s when plans were made to develop the site. The planning decisions made in the decades that followed became the focus of an Ombudsman investigation last year (“Incompetence blamed for Cove decisions”, The News, 20/10/21).
The Ombudsman investigation into the site found that council approved plans for a three-storey development in 1999, a 40-lot subdivision in 2003, a five storey development in 2005, a four-storey development in 2009, two five-storey buildings in 2011, a rezoning in 2012, a six-storey building in 2013, and three multi-storey developments in 2018.
Earlier this year Kingston Council paid $60,000 in ratepayer money towards legal fees incurred by a developer at a VCAT hearing into plans for the Endeavour Cove precinct. Staikos said that the hearing resulted in development in areas where council approved permits in 2018 being halted for two years (“Ratepayers cover legal fees for Cove hearing”, The News, 13/4/22).
In late 2019 VCAT knocked back a parking reduction for a planned 10 storey building at the Endeavour Cove.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 3 August 2022
