Sekisui House Yaroomba Beach: Court decision looms as community groups wait anxiously

Anxious community groups are awaiting the outcome of a last-ditch effort to overturn Sekisui House’s Yaroomba Beach approval as a court decision looms.

Community groups who have spent years fighting against a controversial beachside resort and housing project are waiting anxiously as a crucial court decision looms.

Friends of Yaroomba and Development Watch members are awaiting a Supreme Court Court of Appeal decision which will decide whether the Sekisui House Yaroomba Beach project goes back to the Planning and Environment Court for review, or its approval is upheld and the billion-dollar development can begin.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised to fund the community’s fight and the Court of Appeal has been considering the appeal since the matter was heard in Brisbane in March.

Friends of Yaroomba spokeswoman Kathryn Hyman said she expected a decision could be made “any day” now.

“They’re obviously having a good look at it,” she said.

“No news is good news at the moment.”

She said they’d had no indication of when the final decision would be made or which way it would go and she said members were “sitting on their hands to stop biting their nails” as they anxiously awaited the outcome.

Development Watch president Lyn Saxton said she was feeling “a little hopeful” but added there were no guarantees when it came to court decisions.

She said generally Court of Appeal decisions took about three months, but she said they could take as long as needed, depending on the individual matter.

Sekisui House Yaroomba Beach project director Evan Aldridge.

Sekisui House’s Yaroomba Beach project director Evan Aldridge was currently on leave and therefore unable to respond to questions this week, but it was understood the development firm had also not been given any indication when the Court of Appeal would finalise its decision.

Sekisui House announced in May it would start investigation works on the site over the next few months, in preparation of the start of development while it awaited the Court of Appeal judgment.

Those investigation works were to accommodate both the current proposal being considered and an existing earlier approval for a gated estate of apartments and houses.