Kindred Development confident their plans for a unit complex at Newport will be approved

A developer says councillors voted against his proposal for a six-story unit complex at a marina north of Brisbane in a bid to boost their profile ahead of next year’s local government elections.

Concept images of Kindred Developments proposed six-storey development at Newport Marina.

KINDRED Group have officially lodged an appeal with the Planning and Environment Court after Moreton Bay Regional Council voted against a proposal to build a six-storey unit complex at the Newport Marina.

Kindred Group originally lodged an application to build two 10 storey towers, one a residential unit tower and the other for short-stay accommodation, in August last year.

SUBSCRIPTION OFFER: SIGN UP FOR 12 MONTHS AND RECEIVE A SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB A 8.0 (MIN COST $390)

Public outcry against the development led the developer to go back to the drawing board — this time proposing to build a six-storey unit development.

Concept images of Kindred Development’s original plan for Newport Marina.

It was proposed to include 54 units, a communal space, gym, pool and lounge. This development also received a lot of backlash from nearby residents.

Moreton Bay Regional Council received 829 properly made submissions in relation to the development, just 164 of them were in favour of it.

In August this year council voted against the council officer’s recommendation to approve the development.

Councillors Adam Hain, Koliana Winchester, Denise Sims, Brooke Savige, Peter Flannery and Matt Constance voted against the application as it did not comply with the planning scheme. While councillors James Houghton, Julie Greer, Darren Grimwade and Mike Charlton voted in favour of the officers’ recommendation to approve the proposal.

Mayor Allan Sutherland left the room for the discussion and decision as he lives at Newport.

Kindred Group CEO Joshua Kindred said despite all this he was confident the application would be approved next year by the Planning and Environment Court.

Concept images of the six storey unit development proposed by Kindred Developments for the Newport Marina. Image: Rothelowman

“We are confident that our appeal will be successful, given the factors in favour of approval, including the ‘in favour’ vote of the divisional Councillor and strong Officer’s recommendation for approval,” Mr Kindred said.

“On top of this, (Planning and Environment) Court is not a place where political grandstanding will be present, which is what occurred in the Moreton Bay Council’s vote by a number of councillors, where tax payer money was wasted as certain councillor’s leveraged a ‘no’ vote to position themselves in the upcoming election.”

The day after the council voted against the application, Councillor Peter Flannery (Div 2), who made a speech in the council meeting about the development application and why it should not be approved in front of about 30 Newport residents, announced he planned to run for Mayor at the 2020 local government elections.

A council spokesman said “now that this matter is before the courts, Council is unable to comment”.