By Jeremy Sollars
A court appeal over a proposed retirement village on the outskirts of Stanthorpe has been resolved through mediation between the developer, the Southern Downs Regional Council and residents who initiated the legal appeal.
Councillors last November voted in favour of approving the plan by JVY Group to develop a 90-residence ‘lifestyle retirement living’ complex for the over-50s on Torrisi Terrace.
But members of the Marino family, who own land adjoining the Torrisi Terrace site, lodged a legal appeal in the Planning and Environment Court of Queensland in January of this year seeking to have the council approval overturned.
Their primary grounds of objection to the development were their view that the proposal constituted ‘over-development’ of the subject land and that the configuration of stormwater systems proposed by JVY Group would result in stormwater flows damaging to their own adjacent property.
The matter was resolved last week by way of a judgement handed down by His Honour Judge Williamson of the Planning and Environment Court without the court having to order a full hearing of the matter, and with the parties having participated in a lengthy process of negotiations over amendments to the council’s conditions of approval.
The Marino family originally argued that the development will take up more than 63 per cent of the 4.3 hectare Torrisi Terrace site, with the council’s planning scheme allowing a maximum site coverage of buildings in the low-density residential zone of 40 per cent.
The Marinos also alleged the development would involve “changes to the stormwater discharge characteristics” of the site which would “substantially damage the (Marinos’) land”.
It is understood that amended conditions of approval relating to the stormwater systems on the JVY Group site are satisfactory to the Marino family. Comment was sought from them for this story but was not available by time of printing of this week’s edition.
“Moving forward”
Former Stanthorpe resident and JVY Group national sales and project manager Dianne Fielding previously said the new retirement facility will “rival any lifestyle resort in the big city” and is proposed to be named ‘Arcadia’, a nod to Glad and Norm Crisp who were family friends of Dianne’s growing up, and who operated the Arcadia Picture Theatre from 1953 to the late 1960s, as well as other local businesses.
Ms Fielding told the Free Times this week she was “thrilled” with the outcome of the appeal process.
“We’ll be moving forward with the development as quickly as possible,” she told the Free Times.
“We still need to obtain the relevant operational works approvals from the council but we expect the civic construction works on the site to commence in early 2020, possibly in February.
“We’ve had a lot of interest in the development, including from locals.
“Our intention has always been to use local contractors for the construction of the project, noting that given its scale some may not have all of the relevant expertise.
“We were always confident the project would proceed, it’s a very good outcome for us and for the Stanthorpe community.”
