Council slams VCAT a ‘joke’

By Ed Merrison
KNOX City Council has reissued a plea to Attorney General Rob Hulls for a review of a Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal described by Dobson Ward councillor Karin Orpen as ‘a joke’.
The council has received no reply to a letter sent on Friday, 3 February expressing concern at a VCAT decision to reclassify a Ferntree Gully development as ‘dwellings’ while retaining a requirement that occupiers be over 55 years of age.
The council initially received an application to change the use of the 21-apartment property at 1 Station Street, Ferntree Gully, from serviced apartments to a retirement village. During the course of the application, the proposed use was modified to ‘accommodation’ (independent living) since a retirement village would need significant work to meet a new set of building regulations.
The revised application was rejected in May 2005 on the grounds of insufficient access for people with limited mobility and inappropriate amenity for future occupants, including inadequate facilities, insufficient open space areas, minimal access to sunlight and daylight and insufficient provision for waste disposal.
The development also has no on-site parking or lift to the first floor which raised the question of convenience to residents of the specified age.
The applicant, Lifestyle Developers Pty Ltd, sought a review of the decision and following a hearing in October 2005, the VCAT president changed the permit application so that proposed use was ‘dwellings’, with a proposal to restrict the occupancy to residents over 55 years of age.
A permit was granted by VCAT in November 2005.
Cr Orpen said the decision was a ‘nonsense’ and that the minimum age requirement was an ‘absolutely unenforceable’ condition.
“I thought I’d seen just about every ridiculous decision by VCAT but this one beats them all,” she said. In its letter to Mr Hulls, the council requested that should the permit not be cancelled the State Government indemnify the council from any future claims arising from the restriction that the building be occupied by people over 55 years of age.
The council pointed out that the age specification meant the property would remain to all intents and purposes a retirement village, but that the classification change did not ensure appropriate facilities for residents who may find it hard to get into the building or who have to escape in an emergency.
Knox CEO Graeme Emonson wrote in the letter: “It appears that the age restriction was imposed to justify shortcomings in the proposal in relation to parking, livability of the dwellings and open space, but it is submitted that the decision has created significant problems for the City of Knox and future residents.
“Trying to ensure that each resident of the separately owned dwellings is over 55 years of age at all times will also pose a significant enforcement challenge for Council, and is one which VCAT should have had more regard to.”
The matter was also raised in Parliament by Koonung MP Bruce Atkinson on Wednesday, 8 February and was taken on notice by Mr Hulls.
Mr Atkinson has not yet received a response.