An artist’s impression of the development planned for the Gold Creek Country Club land. Image: Cox Architecture.
A residents group has slammed ACAT for siding with a developer’s assertion that its proposal was a motel and not a multi-unit residential project, calling it an astonishing decision.
The Community of Nicholls Residents Group (CNRG) was commenting on the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s decision last week to set aside the Planning Authority’s rejection of three development applications for 274 units to be built on a section of the Gold Creek Country Club golf course.
CNRG has long argued that Gungahlin Golf Investments’ labelling of an almost 700-unit development proposal as commercial accommodation was a sham.
The Planning Authority agreed and refused the DAs, stating that residential development was not permitted on the PRZ2-zoned land.
But GGI took the Planning Authority to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which accepted arguments that the DAs were for motel accommodation and remitted them for reassessment.
CNRG said at least ACAT did not approve the DAs, but it’s hard to understand how anyone could be persuaded to agree that GGI’s intent for the development, as originally proposed, was for a motel.
“Just saying that it is a motel does not make it so,” it said.
CNRG said ACTPLA’s refusal showed the proposal was clearly a multi-unit residential dwelling development and thus prohibited on PRZ2 land.
“To this end, ACAT’s decision is … quite astonishing,” it said.
“The ACAT decision brings inappropriate multi-storey, multi-unit housing development one step closer to Nicholls.”
CRNG said the Tribunal acknowledged the Gold Creek Master Plan referred to in all eight DAs in the original proposal for 694 units, but noted that it had no legal standing under planning law, was never publicly notified, and did not have DA approval.
“Instead, the Applicant sought to blindside the Nicholls community by lodging nine separate DAs [including a subdivision proposal], trusting that this legally sanctioned ‘smoke and mirrors’ approach would achieve their continuing ambition of residential development on Gold Creek Golf Course PRZ2 zoned land,” CNRG said.
It said ACAT did not consider the hundreds of public representations against the proposal and disregarded the wealth of supporting documentation that clearly identified the proposal as a residential development.
The Tribunal was too easily persuaded that the DAs were for motels, taking the intentions on the application forms and primary documents at face value.
“Development applications must be assessed in their entirety, not cherry-picked,” CNRG said.
GGI withdrew five of the eight DAs during assessment, which CNRG said changed the proposal without public notification, denying the community the opportunity to scrutinise it.
CNRG said the Tribunal’s willingness to accept the change from 694 to 274 ‘modern motel’ units in three stages had overridden the mountain of evidence demonstrating that GGI’s end game was to develop part of the course for residential use by avoiding the legal necessity for Territory Plan and Crown Lease variations.
It said the Tribunal should have refused the appeal and directed that, because the proposal had changed, new DAs needed to be submitted for public notification and assessment under the new ACT Planning Act 2023.
CNRG said it would support an ancillary motel of an appropriate size and scale consistent with the existing and proposed development nearby at Gold Creek Village.
“An ancillary motel similar to the Springs Shoalhaven at Worrigee Links Golf Club on the NSW South Coast, which has 46 motel-style rooms and suites, would be more in keeping with the character and environment of the Gold Creek Golf Course,” it said.
But the Crown lease restricted new development to 8000 square metres of Gross Floor Area within a specific part of the course, and there were already two under-utilised motels in the adjacent Gold Creek Village area and a further one planned to complement a new function centre in the Old Ginninderra Village.
“CNRG remains confident ACTPLA will conclude that this new 274-unit ‘modern motel’ proposal is an inappropriate development and, accordingly, refuse the DAs as detailed in the Applicant’s original and supporting documentation,” CNRG said.
The Konstantinou Group bought the Gold Creek Country Club from the ACT Government for $3 million in 2005, and, like other golf course owners, argues land development will keep the club viable.
