Community group starts legal battle to stop Pasadena development in Church Point

RESIDENTS of Church Point and the Western Foreshore have banded together to launch legal action against the developer of the Pasadena site to prevent any more work being done.

Works are nearing completion on the revamped Pasadena.

• Pasadena site in Church Point to eb acquired by council
• Construction starts to reopen Pasadena
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RESIDENTS of Church Point and the Western Foreshore have banded together to launch legal action against the developer of the Pasadena site to prevent any more work being done.

The group, which includes former director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery QC, is called the Church Point Community Projects Inc.

“There are two areas of attack; one is what is claimed to be unlawful development work,” Mr Cowdery said.

An outdoor area of the near complete Pasadena..

“It is supposedly based on a 1963 building approval which the association says has lapsed, is not current, therefore the work has no lawful justification.”

He said their lawyers would also argue there had been “work on crown land adjacent to the Pasadena building which doesn’t appear to have been regulated in any way by the council”.

He said the group was forced to act because the council had not yet come good on an August 2017 resolution to compulsorily acquire the site.

After that resolution, works started to revitalise the Pasadena site.

Former NSW Director of Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery is one of the main people leading the fight.

The council is still attempting to negotiate a settlement but the site is nearing completion.

CPCP spokesman Rob Jeffress said the appropriation of the adjacent crown land had not followed due process. And there were significant questions regarding how the new lease was awarded and the absence of DA approvals for the development.

“The Church Point foreshore and crown land was not part of the $2.4 million purchase in 2012, nor is it part of the private certifier’s approval of construction work. Yet the last of Church Point’s public green space was fenced off for years without lease payments or compliance controls,” he said.

Pasadena owner Paul Peterkin told the Manly Daily: “Their legal case is simply misguided and we don’t know what they really want to achieve.

“They don’t seem to understand the position regarding the Pasadena and don’t appear to be aware that council has confirmed the refurbishment works at the Pasadena comply with the original development consents.

Owners of the Pasadena at Church Point's site started constructions works soon after teh council decided to acquire it. Picture: Annika Enderborg.

“We don’t know who they are and they won’t say, including what connection they have to Church Point.

“There is a Church Point Residents Association but they don’t seem to have any connection to that, so it is unclear why they were even set up.

“The community feedback we are receiving is overwhelmingly positive. People really seem to be warming to what we are doing and looking forward to the Pasadena reopening.”