Development applications- negotiation with Objectors???
Phone 07 3371 9355 or Email
14 October 2004
None of Council decisions on Development applications are subject to public scrutiny, input or legal appeal ...
The emphasis seems to have shifted onto corner blocks... like IRONY and the shockers on Graham/Harts, and the old St Andrews Rectory, and now Kew Street and DAs on BOTH sides of Indooroopilly Road at Harts Road ...where next?
For many years, Council had quite stringent conditions (allegedly based on road safety) requiring large truncation at intersections, and bans on site access and on-street parking within quite long distances from the actual original intersection point. The result was that many of these sites survived the developers. And because of their location and prominence, not only were they often quite significant houses (see IRONY, The St Andrews Rectory, and Kew Street), they have therefore become increasingly valued ... !
But now Council has reduced the restrictions AND is allowing relaxations as well ... paradoxically making a nonsense of the "road safety" reasons previously relied on by Council.
This has also opened a new form of "corruption" as the relaxations have no basis in consistency and in our areas, none of the decisions are subject to public scrutiny, input or legal appeal.
In fact today I have received a copy of a letter from the Lord Mayor which indicates how serious this problem really is in that he says that despite local objections (including from the Councillor), "many of the issues (traffic, bulk, and scale and tree retention) have been resolved through negotiation with the applicant and a recommendation will be made shortly".
Why are those who made objections NOT a party to the negotiations esp when there are no appeal rights ... appeal rights removed by Council ...?
As usual, feel free to express your views preferably "to all" and if you need some more details just ask.
Michael Yeates.