Shannon Bennett’s Burnham Beeches plans to go to independent panel

CONTROVERSIAL plans for the historic Burnham Beeches estate will go to a State Government-appointed panel because of unresolved issues.

Shannon Bennett and Adam Garrisson are pushing on with plans for the Burnham Beeches estate. Picture: Martin Reddy

CONTROVERSIAL plans for the historic Burnham Beeches estate will go to a State Government-appointed panel because of unresolved issues including traffic and heritage values.

At last night’s council meeting, Yarra Ranges councillors voted to ask Planning Minister Richard Wynne to appoint an independent panel to consider unresolved community submissions.

Shannon Bennett under fire for helicopters at Burnham Beeches

Chef Shannon Bennett talks about his plans for Sherbrooke’s Burnham Beeches site

Once the panel has made it’s recommendations, the application will go back to a council meeting for a decision and then to Mr Wynne for final sign-off.

Owners of the Sherbrooke estate, celebrity chef Shannon Bennett and developer Adam Garrisson, have backed the council’s decision.

The pair’s revised plans came back to the council this week after going out for public consultation in October last year.

The new plans include removing a cap on patron numbers, renovation of the Norris building as a six-star hotel, a microbrewery, shop and new restaurant inside the existing Piggery Cafe.

Yarra Ranges social and economic development director Ali Wastie said most of the submissions were critical and highlighted the safety concerns for residents and visitors if there was a bushfire.

Ms Wastie said unresolved issues also included heritage values, traffic, parking, environmental, landscape impacts, and excessive scale.

The Norris building at the Burnham Beeches estate is falling into disrepair. Picture: Martin Reddy

Cr Mike Clarke said a lot of matters were raised by the community and it was essential to take the plans to an independent panel.

Cr Clarke said he had confirmed with planning officers it was the only way of moving forward other than “sinking the ship completely”.

Mr Garrisson told the meeting that he and Mr Bennett had worked diligently and spent a lot of time and money to address community and council concerns.

“Shannon and I are extremely passionate about the project and if we wanted to really get in and make money somewhere we wouldn’t be coming out here and doing what we’ve done for the last seven or eight years,” Mr Garrisson said.

“We’re very passionate about the community, about trying to create a difference and trying to really make an amazing restoration of the building and the grounds.”

He said the majority of the application for building work was restoration of the heritage house and other old buildings.

“We’ve got over 300,000sq m of land and we’re only going to look at less than 300sq m of new build footprint,” Mr Garrisson said.

“So that’s a very, very small, a zero, zero, zero something per cent of the land in new build, the rest is dealing with the heritage buildings.”

This is what a deluxe suite could look like inside the historic Norris building at Burnham Beeches.