Gold Coast City Council’s escalating legal battle over controversial DVB beachfront tower
A high-profile multimillion-dollar legal battle to halt a controversial beachfront tower is escalating, with a decision made which will have a significant impact over its future.
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A HIGH-profile multimillion-dollar legal battle to halt a controversial beachfront tower is escalating, with the Gold Coast City Council returning to court in a last ditch bid to kill off the project.
Councillors have voted to go to the Court of Appeal to challenge a Planning and Environment Court ruling throwing out the council’s rejection of plans for a 26-level Broadbeach tower, Sea Glass.
Sydney developer DVB’s quest for development approval was rejected in mid-2021 on grounds that included the project being an overdevelopment of the site.
The developer immediately appealed to the planning court, a case it won in December at a cost of $2m.
DVB head of development Joel Brown said it was an “understatement” to say the company was disappointed when it received advice on Wednesday that the council was seeking leave to appeal its December knock-back over Sea Glass.
“We have difficulty in understanding why Gold Coast ratepayers, who have already picked up the past 18 months of legal bills and Planning and Environment Court costs, again will be picking up the bill for this latest challenge.”
Mr Brown said council in effect unsuccessfully challenged its own City Plan when it went to the Planning and Appeal Court.
“Now it wants to change tack and say the planning court judge erred in law,” he said.
“It’s nearly two years since we lodged our development application for Sea Glass, which will be an outstanding building in an idyllic beachside location.
“It’s not dissimilar to the recently approved Aspire project on the beachfront at Surfers, which was approved under the same City Plan and shares the same town-planning parameters.”
The amount that the council spent fighting that appeal has not been disclosed.
Council planning boss Cr Cameron Caldwell defended the cost of the legal battle and insisted continuing the fight was the right decision for ratepayers.
“Council notes the decision of the Planning and Environment Court, however full council has resolved to take the matter to the Court of Appeal,” he said.
“Our firm view in refusing the application in the first instance and to this day is that the application does not meet the parameters of the City Plan.
“Council is taking the broad interest of ratepayers into account in ensuring that outcomes are in line with the City Plan.”
The council knock-back to DVB’s plans was based, in part, on effects such as shadowing that the planned high-rise would have on six-floor block Bedarra on its southern boundary in Old Burleigh Rd.
Planning court judge Nicole Kefford visited the Sea Glass site during the appeal hearing and later said there already were sizeable shadows caused by other buildings and by vegetation such as Norfolk Pines.
Judge Kefford said the Bedarra shadowing would continue regardless of what happened on the DVB site.
It is the latest in a series of high-profile legal cases the council has fought over its planning decisions.
Last month Mayor Tom Tate revealed the cost of fighting developer Polites Property Group’s appeal over its controversial Main Beach tower La Mer which the council had rejected.
“Now that the referee has blown his whistle, I just hope we abide by the decision and learn.
“(The cost of) this one will be half a million dollars.”
A negotiated outcome saw the height of La Mer reduced from 35 to 25 levels.
DVB’s Sea Glass, capped by a 1450sq m penthouse, is earmarked for a $14m site overlooking the ocean in First Ave.
DVB head Dean Brown last month said the lengthy court battle with the city council had cost the group more than $2m in legal and associated costs.
“Of course, the other side of the cost equation is the amount that the loss of the case has cost the city’s ratepayers.”
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