By JESSE GRAHAM
A TWO-year dispute between Yarra Ranges Council and a Healesville businessman has ended, with the council acknowledging past faults and approving an extension for hours.
On 25 February, Yarra Ranges Council approved a permit that extends Healesville’s Fluid Lounge’s opening hours to 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, in a turnaround move by mayor Fiona McAllister.
Council officers had recommended the council refuse Fluid Lounge owner Garry Christie’s planning application, but Cr McAllister moved for an approval, which was won in a four-to-two vote.
In her speech, Cr McAllister said she was saddened the application had taken so long to be resolved, with a dispute between a nearly-identical application sending the two parties to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) twice.
The original application had been made in April 2012.
“It has taken an incredibly long time to get to this point,” she said.
“’I’m frustrated on behalf of Mr Christie, and I’m saddened it has taken so long to get to this point.”
Cr McAllister referenced a major point of contention between the two parties – conditions placed by the former council which included a $38,500 payment in lieu of parking and provision of a courtesy bus – and agreed with Mr Christie that they should not have existed.
“The conditions were questionable – some of those should never have been applied,” she said.
Concerns were raised by councillors Samantha Dunn and Len Cox, however, due to the potential impacts on Healesville by increasing the availability of alcohol.
“Our Health and Wellbeing Plan does point out that alcohol-related harm is a priority,” Cr Dunn said.
“I simply cannot agree to having access to alcohol at 3am in the morning.”
However, Cr McAllister addressed this point by referencing the severe penalties that are handed out to non-compliance by licensed venues, and said the issue would also be followed up by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR).
“There are very high penalties for breaches of sale of alcohol – protection that is not applied by us, so it’s not appropriate that we step into that domain,” she said.
Mr Christie said that he was ecstatic about the result of the meeting, and that he expected to have a response from the liquor licensing body in around six weeks.
“I’m really happy that I got the permit that I wanted, and I’m thankful to the councillors – not because I got what I wanted, but because they did the right thing,” he said.
“I was fully prepared to go back to VCAT, so it’s a weight off the shoulders – I can focus on the business, now that we’ve got the permits in place.”
Mr Christie said that he was left of the edge of bankruptcy by the disputes, which left him around $40,000 out of pocket, and thanked the community for their support over the years.
“If it wasn’t for the local community up here, I wouldn’t have got through it,” he said.
During the VCAT hearings, a change to the state government’s planning laws saw the ground shift in Mr Christie’s favour, with Fluid Lounge now classified as a Commercial 1 zone, which has an as-of-use right to trade at all hours.
However, consumption of alcohol outside of approved hours has to be signed off by council and VCGLR, which liaises with Victoria Police.
Cr McAllister said that Healesville was a town that had no fear of objecting proposals they didn’t like, and noted that Mr Christie’s current application got no objections whatsoever.
His original application to council received 272 letters of support.
“We can’t take the lack of objection … as anything else except for the fact that the broader community sees this as an appropriate step,” she said.
“The resounding silence says a lot in terms of this particular application.”
Mr Christie’s permit also included an extension of hours to 1am Tuesday-Thursday, and an increase of patron numbers to 200 after 9pm.
