Tallebudgera land divison appeal dismissed after council claims public were ‘shut out’ of assessment process

A Gold Coast developer who wanted to divide acreage property in a ‘sensitive’ area of a hinterland suburb despite council claiming the public was ‘shut out’ from the assessment process has had his appeal dismissed.

Valley Drive, Tallebudgera. Pic: Core Logic.

AN APPEAL by a Gold Coast developer to subdivide an acreage property in a ‘sensitive’ area of a hinterland suburb has been dismissed following council claims the public has been ‘shut-out’ of the assessment process.

Glenn McKean made an application to divide a 4.89 hectare Tallebudgera property into six ‘park living’ lots in January 2016 but the Gold Coast City Council refused his application in December last year, according to a recently published judgment.

The Valley Drive lot was valued at $540,000 according to property searches and appears to run along the back of a number of other properties on the street.

Valley Drive, Tallebudgera. Pic: Core Logic.

Mr McKean appealed to the Planning and Environment Court of Queensland at Southport in April this year only to have the appeal dismissed in a decision by Judge David Kent QC.

While the appeal was dismissed it is understood the development application is ongoing.

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In his decision, Judge Kent noted a Gold Coast City Council submission which stated the case had the effect of ‘shutting out’ the public from the development assessment process where they would normally be able to have a say.

The court document stated there was no public notification of the development application because the plan was treated as ‘code assessable’. Council had refused the application regardless.

“The proposed development is one in which members of the public may be particularly interested,” the Judgement states in describing council submissions.

“It is a sensitive area. Persons live adjacent or nearby. They may well seek to make a submission.

“They may well have genuine concerns about the nature of the development, particularly in the areas of access, slope stability, bushfire management, vegetation management and clearing and services/infrastructure.”

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Council also submitted that a subdivision could have made it more difficult to manage problems like bushfires and vegetation in the area.

Issues with the size of the blocks in the proposed subdivision were also found.

A council officer first found that the blocks of land were less than 8000 sqm, which was the minimum size required for “park living” developments.

The original lot sizes ranged between 4003 sqm and 5419 sqm and had about two hectares of open public space, according to the judgement.

Mr McKean made a change by redesigning the plan and absorbing the two hectares into the blocks of land, according to the documents.

Mr McKean did not wish to comment when approached by the Gold Coast Bulletin.