Redland council blamed for eight court appeals linked to massive bayside housing precinct

A southside council, which has delayed assessing development applications spanning a massive 175ha housing hub, has been blamed for eight court appeals.

An aerial view of parts of Redland Bay and Victoria Point with the Double Jump Road ringed in red and the Victoria Point Shopping Centre at bottom right. Picture: Google Maps.

A southside council, reprimanded by the state government last year for refusing to deliver a housing strategy, has been blamed for eight court cases linked to a massive bayside housing estate.

Redland City Council failed to assess development applications for eight housing projects spanning 175 ha of land at Victoria Point within the standard timeframe.

The assessment delays resulted in the council issuing “deemed refusals” forcing the developers of more than 800 dwellings to seek legal remedies through the state Planning and Environment Court.

Court judgments have decided about 40 per cent of the South West Victoria Point planning applications with seven of 15 development applications lodged in the area resulting in court appeals after deemed refusals.

Six appeals have been decided by the court and there are two outstanding cases linked to the area.

Fiteni’s Woodbury Estate near the Victoria Point Shopping Centre. Picture: Fiteni

Redland City Council said it was premature to determine development applications until local area planning “had progressed”, even though it had received several properly made development applications for sites since 2015.

The council’s structure plan for South West Victoria Point is currently in a draft format and has not been formally released to the public, despite the state government giving the green light for public consultation in June 2021.

Redland council said the delays were to give the community a chance to comment on the draft plans and give the state government time to announce a clear commitment to funding vital infrastructure.

“However, property owners and developers were not prepared to wait and pushed ahead with individual development applications,” the council said.

“A number of applicants decided to appeal to the Planning and Environment Court on the grounds of a ‘deemed refusal’ from the council pursuant to the Planning Act 2016.

“The statutory planning framework does not prohibit the lodgment of development applications before the finalisation of a local plan.”

One of the Victoria Point developers, Fiteni, said its applications to build its 800-lot Woodbury estate at the site were submitted to Redland City Council in good faith with the expectation they would be assessed in line with standard timeframes.

Signs to Double Jump Road at Redland Bay, where the 175ha housing project is now going ahead.

Fiteni executive development manager Vaughn Bowden said his company chose the “highly costly” court appeal process as a last option after his company submitted applications in 2017 and 2018.

Mr Bowden said developers of the area, including Fiteni and Ausbuild, had worked together to jointly draft a structure plan to determine land use, infrastructure, conservation and parks.

But he said the council approval process came to a halt in 2019, when councillors voted to defer all development decisions until the council had prepared its own structure plan for the area.

“This meant council was unable to comply with the required decision making timeframes and all applications were forced into deemed refusal,” he said.

“Because of the significant delays and with no certainty about timeframes, we decided to seek a decision from the Planning and Environment Court.”

The court approved Fiteni’s four applications via a consent order between March and October 2021 with the council and the developer coming to mutual agreement, rather than the court needing to make a determination on any points of disagreement.