Lawyers ready to argue 300-home GemLife project for West Ballina

The developer recently submitted revised plans for the project, amending their proposal, but those changes have not been made public yet.

A development application for a 300-home estate in West Ballina will be discussed at the NSW Land and Environment Court from Monday, with possible changes slated for the project.

The development application for the establishment of a 300-lot manufactured home estate at 550-578 River Street, West Ballina, was brought to Ballina Shire Council by Planners North on behalf of GemLife.

A council spokeswoman said Planners North, representing GemLife, recently submitted revised plans for the development, amending their proposal.

The master plan for the new GemLife home estate development project in West Ballina as originally presented to council.

The proceedings are listed for a final hearing between August 2 and 6.

“Adjoining neighbours and those who have previously prepared submissions have been notified to ensure they are made aware of the current changes to the proposal,” the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said those amendments had not been made public yet.

“These amendments are still subject to court processes and have not yet been accepted,” she said.

“The further amended materials will be made available for viewing by the public once this has occurred, to ensure transparency in relation to the materials that will be before the court during the hearing.”

The project is for an over-50s resort facility on around 14 hectares of land.

The project includes extensive earthworks and drainage works and it has attracted strong opposition from neighbours.

This will be the third major amendment to the proposal, after from Planners North (acting on behalf of GemLife) to Ballina Shire Council updated the cost of the development from just under $30 million to $48.8 million in June 2020.

This update required the matter be referred to the Regional Planning Panel, but before that was put in place, and shortly after re-exhibition of the amended application, the developer lodged proceedings in the Land and Environment Court for a deemed refusal of the development application.

A conciliation conference between the parties was held on November 12, 2020, and a hearing was set for early May 2021.

The hearing was cancelled as the applicant sought to make a number of late amendments to the proposal.

Another $33.9 million seniors housing project by GemLife for 147 sites in Skennars Head was approved by the Northern Regional Planning Panel on May 31, 2021.