Fears Council will ‘roll over’ on hated inner-city highrise

Residents say they fear Council will make a secret deal with a controversial developer despite vowing to “rigorously” fight its three-tower highrise project.

Residents are concerned Council will strike a deal with a developer after it refused a triple highrise proposal at 108 Lambert St, Kangaroo Point.

Kangaroo Point residents are calling on Brisbane City Council to honour its commitment to take a highrise plan to court if the developer pushes ahead with an appeal.

Pikos Group wants to build three 15-storey towers on Lambert St, a plan so deeply unpopular it has sparked street protests. Council earlier approved a plan for three 10-storey towers but knocked back the 15-storey version.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner wrote to locals in January promising “Council will seek to rigorously defend the decision to refuse this application”.

But Say No to 108 Lambert St spokesman, James Lingwood, said Council was in secret pre-trial talks with the developer, Pikos Group, after it filed a “change application’’ in the Planning & Environment Court.

He feared a deal would be struck, rather than Council opting to fight Pikos’s appeal.

Infuriated locals are concerned Council will roll over if challenged on its refusal of 108 Lambert St. Picture: Peter Wallis

Council has in the past promised to “go hard’’ on some controversial projects, only to argue over minor details (change applications) in the P&E Court, or reach pre-trial agreements.

One well-known example was the TriCare retirement development in Taringa in Brisbane’s inner-west.

After vowing to fight that despised, three-tower project in court, Council instead argued whether TriCare’s amendments amounted to a “minor change’’.

“It now looks like Cr Schrinner has backflipped — Council has entered into a confidential dispute resolution process which, unlike an actual court hearing, is not on the public record,” Mr Lingwood said.

“After looking at what the developer has suggested as amendments to their application, it looks like they are making only a few very minor tweaks to a development application that openly flouts the neighbourhood planning scheme.

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“This is not rigorously defending a decision. ‘Rigour’ stands up to public scrutiny and debate.

“It’s looking increasingly likely that Council is going to roll over and not defend their decision in court.”

“This is unacceptable, especially when our lawyers have provided Council with new evidence that the development application should never have been considered in the first place.’’

Mr Lingwood said the new legal advice showed one of the three buildings proposed for 108 Lambert St exceeded the 15-storey neighbourhood plan height limit.

He said an assessment by independent surveyors and architects had determined that the proposed development was actually 16 storeys, not 15 storeys.

Locals block Lambert St during a street march against the Pikos project. Picture: Peter Wallis

“This means that the application should never have been reviewed under code assessment guidelines and the current appeal in the Planning & Environment Court should not be entertained by the court,” he said.

Mr Lingwood said residents were calling on the Lord Mayor to acknowledge his planning team got it wrong and send the development application back to the drawing board.

“Code assessment shuts the community out of any say over developments that impact their neighbourhood,” he said.

“The council did the right thing in initially rejecting this application, and this new legal advice provides a stronger ground for them not to roll over to developer demands.

“We are asking Lord Mayor Schrinner to fight for the integrity of town planning for all of Brisbane.’’

Mr Lingwood said Council was obliged to lawfully conduct the state planning scheme and that allowing developments to slip through the net as code assessable, instead of impact assessable, would have a ripple effect throughout the city.

“Council should be a model litigant in all matters, and so must fight this application and treat our legal submission openly and transparently,” he said.

“If Council does not conduct its planning scheme in accordance with the law, then it’s thumbing its nose at state law, at the state Planning Minister Steven Miles and at the voters of Brisbane.’’

The Gabba Ward Councillor, Jonathan Sri, said Brisbane’s approach to planning and development assessment was fundamentally flawed.

“Residents have no meaningful say over how their community changes, while the property industry continues to exert significant influence over the drafting of Neighbourhood Plans and the City Plan,” Cr Sri said.

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“In this case, I suspect Council will negotiate a deal with the developers behind closed doors to approve this project, but it should never even have gotten to this stage.

“BCC should have bought this site years ago to create new parkland for a rapidly-densifying area where public infrastructure simply isn’t keeping pace with private development.

“It’s still not too late for either BCC or the State Government to intervene to stop this project.’’

Cr Sri said residents were not opposed to new development, but were concerned projects such as Lambert St were not well designed, nor accompanied by improvements to public transport and community facilities.

City Planning Chair, Krista Adams, said: “As an appeal has been lodged with the Planning and Environment Court, Council cannot comment further on this issue.’’

For more details of the project, visit Council’s online development application portal development (also known as pdonline) and search for application number A005542190