Stadium rules challenge has been tried before and failed: Greens
The Macquarie Point Development Corporation has already tried and failed to challenge against the planning rules governing its stadium proposal, the Greens say.
Tasmania
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The Macquarie Point Development Corporation has already tried and failed to challenge against the planning rules governing its stadium proposal, the Greens say.
The MPDC last week released legal advice saying the Tasmanian Planning Commission’s draft Integrated Assessment Report of the project was unreasonably broad and legally flawed and should be given “limited, if any, weight”.
The Corporation and the Planning Commission exchanged views over the scope of the assessment in January this year and TPC Executive Commissioner John Ramsey spelled out the rules for the assessment.
The assessment allows for the Commission to assess the “environmental, social, economic and community issues relevant to the project”.
And the scope “related infrastructure and services necessary to support its operation and any other facility or thing necessary, or convenient, for the implementation of the project”.
MPDC chief Anne Beach said the Planning Commission was overreaching.
“They’ve taken a really broad interpretation of some of that text, and our concern is that that’s an exaggerated interpretation,” she said.
“It’s open to interpretation, but I think the clear intent was, what is the infrastructure required for a stadium.
“You need to think about what’s an appropriate thing to do if we need to upgrade a bus stop in Clarence as part of the bus network that might get a use on an event day is that a reasonable thing?
“If the electrical network needs to be upgraded anyway? Does that fall in scope?”
The draft Integrated Assessment report found that the total cost of building and operating the stadium and related infrastructure would amount to $1.4bln between 2024 and 2058.
It noted that the project would return just 53c on the dollar, would not raise sporting participation and would be “disproportionate in the context of the small scale of Hobart”.
Greens deputy leader Vica Bayley said the Planning Commission was made up of experts with impeccable credentials — so the MPDC’s attack on them was hard to understand.
“Make no mistake, this is just a pretence to undermine the Planning Commission, to give the Premier a cover for special legislation to fast track and green light the stadium that Tasmanians don’t want, don’t need, can’t afford, and the Planning Commission has said comes with extreme risks to the budget and to the city,” he said.
“It took three days for the Macquarie Point Development Corporation to produce this advice from a multinational corporation, when indeed these issues had been discussed at length between the Planning Commission and the Macquarie Point Development Corporation.
“The Macquarie Point Development Corporation had been told clearly way back in January about the scope of the assessment and the issues that were there.”
Originally published as Stadium rules challenge has been tried before and failed: Greens
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