Mt Gilead Estate to go ahead after court battle
A COMMUNITY action group’s last-ditch effort to stop Lendlease’s Mt Gilead development has failed in the NSW Land and Environment Court.
Macarthur
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A COMMUNITY action group’s last-ditch effort to stop Lendlease’s Mt Gilead development has failed in the NSW Land and Environment Court.
Help Save Mt Gilead, a community group made up of Appin residents opposed to the development, had its application to have a 2017 change to the Campbelltown Local Environment Plan rejected by Justice Tim Moore late last month.
If the LEP was overturned it would have blocked Lendlease from developing the first stage of its Gilead estate, a 1700- home development on 208.9ha between Appin and Rosemeadow.
Help Save Mt Gilead argued the processes undertaken by Campbelltown Council, the Planning Department and the Greater Sydney Commission in approving the LEP changes were flawed, rendering the decision invalid.
Help Save Mt Gilead also raised issues with the air quality report, which had been put on public exhibition, claiming it was misleading.
But Justice Moore, in striking down the case, said Help Save Mt Gilead had not been able to support its arguments.
“The association (Help Save Mt Gilead) has failed in all four grounds advanced in support of its challenge to the amendment to the LEP,” he said.
In regards to the air quality report, Justice Moore said there was nothing to establish that the report was defective.
Help Save Mt Gilead spokeswoman Sue Gay, an Appin resident, said the organisation was weighing up its legal options.
“We’re getting legal advice on appealing the decision,” Mrs Gay said.
Construction on stage one of Gilead is expected to begin in the coming months.