Melbourne banker John Wylie in legal stoush with council over ‘roughshod’ decision

A Melbourne banker has issued some choice words about the council he is taking to court over a planned apartment building.

Investment banker John Wylie and his wife Myriam are taking Glen Eira City Council to court over a five-storey apartment building. Picture: David Geraghty/The Australian.

EXCLUSIVE

Investment banker John Wylie claims a Melbourne council is running “roughshod” over the community as he wages a legal battle over a five-storey apartment building.

The Tanarra Capital founder and former Sport Australia boss has filed legal action against Glen Eira Council over a permit issued for the apartment complex on Glen Huntly Road at Elsternwick.

“This council has run roughshod over local communities for way too long,” Mr Wylie told NCA NewsWire.

He’s taken the battle to the Supreme Court of Victoria and argues the permit issued for the apartment building was invalid because a council delegate did not have the power to approve it.

“We’re doing this not just for ourselves but for a whole group of very frustrated and angry local residents,” Mr Wylie said.

A rendering of the five-storey apartment building granted planning permission on Glen Huntly Road at Elsternwick.

His wife Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie is listed as a second plaintiff in the legal proceedings.

The council made a “total mockery” of their own planning aspirations in approving the development, Mr Wylie told NCA NewsWire.

He alleges in court documents the five-storey complex was green-lit by a delegate who did not have the authority to do so, and that the council failed to give notice to all potentially affected residents.

The council’s strategies and policies in place for the area required residential development not go above two storeys and “generally” not exceed existing building heights, according to Mr Wylie’s court writ.

He also argues the permit may cause “material detriment” to owners and occupiers of residential land near the site, and he and others were not given “direct notice” of the application.

The lack of notification also deprived Mr Wylie and his wife the ability to object to the permit application, they claim.

But the businessman and former Rhodes scholar said he was not opposed to “appropriate” local development.

In a letter seen by NCA NewsWire, Mr Wylie called on government ministers for an independent inquiry into all local council’s planning approval processes.

“My family and neighbours recently experienced first-hand the processes of Glen Eira City Council. To describe them as remarkable would be polite,” he wrote.

“Our case is the visible tip of a very large iceberg.”

Local amenity and neighbourhood character was being downgraded in much-loved suburbs, he said in the letter.

Banker and businessman John Wylie is taking Glen Eira City Council to court.

The developer of the site wants the state planning tribunal to increase the permit so it could build a seven-level apartment block rather than five.

The move comes after Glen Eira council rejected the bid to increase the size of the apartment block at a council meeting in February.

Glen Eira planning director Ron Torres said the council would not comment on allegations made in the Supreme Court proceeding and was defending the matter.

“Mr Wylie is entitled to his views, however they are not views that council shares,” Mr Torres said.

“We would be happy to contribute to any review that the state government sees fit to initiate into local planning policies,” he said of a proposed review into planning procedures.

The state government has also been contacted for comment about the potential for a review.