By JESSE GRAHAM
HEALESVILLE’S controversial Sawmill Site development will again be heading to VCAT, after the site’s developer filed an application to bypass council at the end of March.
Yarra Ranges Council’s social and economic development director Ali Wastie said the applicant for the site at 17-25 Maroondah Highway, adjacent to Heritage Lane, had applied to take their application to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
The applicant filed a Failure to Determine Appeal, which can be made if councils do not make a decision on a planning application within 60 days.
The hearing is set for 11 July.
The council was due to discuss the application and make a decision on Tuesday 12 April.
Ms Wastie said the matter would still be discussed at the council meeting, and that council’s representation at the VCAT hearing will reflect the outcome of the meeting, and whether the permit is approved or not approved.
In the council officers’ report for the meeting, it is recommended that councillors refuse a permit for the development, which could see an epicurean centre, function centre, brewery, lodging rooms, market, service station, a take-away food store and convenience restaurants established on the large block of land.
Officers list their reasoning for recommending a refusal as “inconsistency” with the Industrial 3 Zone area where the development is proposed, “in that the proposal is an overly commercial proposal that will devote little of the site to industrial uses with the proposed use to be predominantly a quasi-business centre”, as well as inconsistency with the Design and Development Overlay for the area.
The application received more than 80 objections, which the council officers note represented a “significant community response”.
Impact on surrounding residents’ amenities and an objection from Victoria Police regarding the “application and inappropriate built form” of the epicurean centre were also listed as reasons for opposing the development.
However, councillors may ignore the officers’ recommendation, and instead vote to approve the development at Tuesday’s meeting.
The development, in a different form, was approved by VCAT in 2013, after being knocked back by the council. The new application added a brewery, lodging rooms, a take-away food store, inclusion of a roundabout and improved pedestrian access, among other features.
The VCAT approval for the old version of the development lasts until September 2017, and the application for the updated version was submitted in late 2014, with consultation held in 2015.
