University of Tasmania loses court battle to rezone and sell off large swathes of Sandy Bay campus

The University of Tasmania has been blocked in court from its plans to rezone and sell off large sections of its Sandy Bay campus.

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THE UNIVERSITY of Tasmania has lost a drawn-out court battle in its bid to subdivide and sell off a large portion of its Sandy Bay campus as part of its Hobart CBD relocation strategy.

The area in question above Churchill Avenue is the university’s largest campus and contains accommodation, sports grounds, buildings – including some that are vacant or in poor condition – plus large areas of undeveloped sloping bushland.

The university has been blocked from subdividing and selling off sections of the upper campus because the land is subject to planning scheme provisions restricting its use for education and university purposes.

And now – following a judgment from the Full Court of the Supreme Court handed down on Tuesday – that blockage will remain.

The judgment allowed an appeal by Attorney-General Elise Archer, effectively stamping out a joint application by the university and the Hobart City Council to rezone the land.

It came after the Tasmanian Planning Commission rejected a planning scheme amendment in May 2018 that would have permitted the rezoning – a decision that was subsequently quashed by Supreme Court judge Stephen Estcourt in February last year.

Justice Estcourt at the time ruled in favour of the university’s request for a review, finding the commission failed to give the organisation a chance to be heard on a request to defer the case.

The amendment sought by the university, if it had been approved, would have allowed it to repurpose “surplus” buildings in the upper campus, a research building at 301 Sandy Bay Road and another property at 6 Grace Street into office, consulting or medical suites.

The university said doing so would have made it easier to sell the buildings.

The commission initially rejected the planning scheme amendment as doing so would be contrary to the state government’s Southern Tasmania Regional Land Use Strategy, which placed the Hobart CBD as the primary location for offices, corporate headquarters and professional services.

Following a series of amendments, the commission ultimately rejected the application as it was concerned about changing the planning scheme before the university conducted its master planning work for the sites.

In his published reasons on Tuesday, Justice Robert Pearce allowed the Attorney-General’s appeal, setting aside Justice Estcourt’s decision to quash the commission’s refusal.

The University of Tasmania’s Sandy Bay campus.

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