By Renee Wood
Yarra Ranges Councillors have approved a planning application which will allow wine producer Giant Steps to expand the business in Gruyere.
The application addressed at the Tuesday 10 May Ordinary Council Meeting was for the use and development of the land for a winery, to build a cellar door, wine production buildings and sheds.
The changes will see the wine producer move production from Healesville to the proposed site on Briarty Road, expecting to see 510 tonnes of grapes processed, although seeks a maximum of 800 tonnes.
Some 10 objections were received for the proposal, stating impacts on views, believing the cellar door will be prominent on a ridge line and concerns over the large scale usage of the development among other things.
Resident Ian Braham spoke against the planning application and said plans go against council’s Vision By Design 2020 policy, which means buildings should be inconspicuous in the landscape, avoid prominent sites and have building clusters.
“This proposal does not meet these tests,” Mr Braham said.
“The cellar door on a prominent ridge line clear of vegetation in an isolated elevated position, which is acknowledged in the officer’s report, is the worst example of this in the proposal.
“To say, as the officers do, that the ridge line is not prominent in the landscape is again just wrong.”
Mr Braham also raised his concerns around the “large” volume of wine production, saying there are road access issues and safety concerns with more heavy vehicles coming through in vintages.
“There are no conditions in the permit that even attempt to contain the allowable volumes that are being processed, which we all know usually only goes up and never comes down,” he said.
Planning consultant Angus McGuckian spoke for the proposal on behalf of his client Phil Sexton, Giant Steps owner.
Mr McGuckian said the applicant and council met for a pre-application meeting in December 2020 to get feedback on the designs.
Further in November 2021, the application was submitted to council and received 10 objections.
The design was changed following council recommendations on traffic, landscaping, tree retention issues and clarification on site uses.
“We recognised there were concerns for the use of Hill Road so we’re directing our trucks and patrons to use Maddens Lane and Briarty Road as per council engineers’ preference,” he said.
Changes have been made to offset the driveway from Hill Road now to Briarty Road with concerns of intersection safety – this has resolved the retention of a large tree.
Giant Steps owner Phil Sexton was also brought into the meeting to answer questions from Cr Fiona McAllister on the size of the winery.
Mr Sexton suggested that 500 tonnes of wine is a modest number and other wineries are far greater.
“Our current production at our winery site in Healesville makes 800 tonnes and that goes up and down, of course, with vintages sometimes… and that is the intended production of this site for as long as we can foresee because it was constrained by the vineyards we operate,” Mr Sexton said.
“800 tonnes production would put us into the smallest scale of Yarra Valley wineries, there are many wines, at least three or four, that are producing 3500 tonnes.”
Cr Sophie Todorov raised visitors and residents concerns over the safety of Hill Road and asked how Giant Steps would manage road closures due to to large events and Rochford Winery.
Mr McGuckian said they propose to close on those days.
“If they cannot encourage their clientele to arrive at the site, without stress and conveniently… it is probably not the experience that they’re seeking to encourage,” he said.
“So the simple answer to that is during those Rochford events, they probably would not be operating.”
Following the discussions, Cr McAllister moved the motion to approve the planning application.
Cr McAllister said she has visited the site and was happy that the cellar door won’t be positioned on a prominent ridge line.
“It is not only something that is an allowed use under the planning provisions both through Green Wedge but also the Regional Strategy plan, but the scale of production and the type of production…is normal,” she said.
“It’s on the ridge, as are many other properties across the valley, but is it a prominent ridge – no it’s not.”
Despite this, Cr Len Cox spoke against the motion saying it would stand out.
“I’m not happy with the cellar door being built on a ridge line, maybe it’s not the most spectacular ridge line in the Yarra Valley, but it is a ridge line and the cellar door will stand out like a sore toe on top of it,” Cr Cox said.
Cr McAllister closed by disagreeing with Cr Cox and wanted to reassure him from visiting the site with objectors and the applicant, the ridge line was not prominent.
The vote was carried by eight votes for the approval.
