Brighton residents outraged by latest ‘Corkman cowboys’ development
One of the rogue developers who illegally demolished Carlton’s landmark Corkman Pub has now bulldozed a luxury home on Brighton’s exclusive “Golden Mile” — and what he’s replaced it with has been labelled “utterly ridiculous” by locals.
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A “cowboy” developer who illegally demolished a Melbourne pub has riled Brighton residents by bulldozing a luxury home and turning it into a beachside hut and playground.
Developer Stefce Kutlesovski was fined $255,000 for his part in the unlawful demolition of the 159-year-old Corkman Hotel in 2016.
Now he has angered well-to-do Brighton residents by tearing down a beachfront 1920s mansion purchased for $10.6 million and slapping up a low rise “dwelling”.
Residents of Brighton’s prestigious “Golden Mile” are outraged Bayside Council has allowed the minimalist structure to stand on one of Victoria’s richest pieces of real estate.
Neighbour Jill Davies said Mr Kutlesovski told residents he razed the six-bedroom, four-bathroom mansion overlooking Port Phillip Bay so his children could use the site as a soccer pitch and bungalow.
“It would be funny if it wasn’t so outrageous,’’ she said.
“It is just completely and utterly ridiculous … it just beggars belief.’’
Mr Kutlesovski – one of the “Corkman cowboys’’ condemned for destroying the pub – lives in another multimillion-dollar mansion about 20m from the site.
He told the Herald Sun “neighbours” complained about the “one bedroom dwelling and a playground for my children’’ he was building.
“The two huts will be coloured and they will be coloured in the way that my children pick the colours,’’ he said.
“It’s going to be quite funky and funny.’’
Ms Davies said the development failed Bayside Council’s guidelines for streetscape, neighbourhood character and amenity.
“For council to allow this – I mean it’s just the most unbelievable construction that I’ve seen anywhere to be honest,’’ she said.
The beachfront block on exclusive Birdwood Ave is flanked by heritage homes and Ms Davies said “at least another dozen residents’’ were “absolutely wild about it’’.
Brighton state Liberal MP James Newbury said it was “a joke’’ such a development could be allowed. “You could build a better backyard cubby house for your kids,’’ he said.
Opposition planning spokesman Tim Smith said: “Its absolutely pathetic the council is hiding behind mindless bureaucracy to make a mockery of planning laws again.’’
But Mr Kutlesovski said his elderly parents would live there, and he and his wife Soyna would one day leave the land to their kids.
“Once my parents go, it will be handed over to my children, we are never going to build a house there, me and Soyna,’’ he said.
“It will be handed over to my three children to build their own dwelling, so hopefully they can build three level apartments or three townhouses and that will be from me and my wife.’’
Bayside Council planning and amenity director Hamish Reid said construction of the new dwelling was “not in breach of any local law and has been approved’’.
“This means the owner of the proposed has the ability to design the building and its sizes without any council engagement on the matter,’’ he said.
In a legal letter, lawyers for the Kutlesovski’s said: “Mr and Mrs Kutlesovski are proud of their strong ethnic working class background and have every right to be treated with the same dignity and respect which you might offer to other residents of the suburb,’’ it said.
But Ms Davies said: “it wouldn’t matter who owned that block, this is just an outrageous decision by the council,’’ she said.
She has lodged a complaint with the Victorian Ombudsman.
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