A PANEL will consider proposed changes to planning controls within the Endeavour Cove precinct, Kingston Council says.
Kingston Council has been drafting new planning controls for the Patterson Lakes site. At a meeting last week, councillors agreed to ask the planning minister to appoint an independent panel to consider the proposed changes.
Planning scheme amendment C205 would grant council greater powers within the Endeavour Cove. It would introduce a planning permit requirement for some developments that are currently exempt.
The mayor Hadi Saab said that the proposed changes were ready to move to the next step. “Two rounds of extensive community consultation have been key aspects of this process, with the planning scheme amendment reflective of what we have heard,” he said. “Endeavour Cove has unique planning rules to other areas of Kingston. After a legal review undertaken in 2020, we identified some compliance issues relating to the planning controls in this area. The proposed new controls address sensitive issues such as parking, height controls and overall development outcomes, with the aim of making them far clearer and more consistent.”
Under the current planning controls within the Endeavour Cove precinct, sometimes no permission is required to construct a building. These controls were tested at a recent VCAT hearing (“Council welcomes VCAT ruling at Cove” The News 19/10/22).
Past decisions made by Kingston Council in relation to the Cove site have been probed by an Ombudsman investigation. That investigation did not substantiate allegations of corruption, but highlighted council’s lack of transparency. (“Incompetence blamed for council’s Cove decisions” The News 20/10/21).
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 30 November 2022