Hope for Sultan’s jewel

THE project manager for an $80 million Salamanca development says his group will shortly lodge another development application with the Hobart City Council for the stalled proposal after the Full Court breathed new life into it.

On Tuesday, the Full Court declared the 2015 permit the council issued Sultan Holdings to build apartments, offices and shops on Montpelier Retreat location as invalid.

The decision by the Full Court, which came after a lengthy legal battle between Sultan Holdings and the neighbouring John Fuglsang Developments Pty Ltd, will give the $80 million proposal another chance for approval.

The project has been described by Sultan Holding’s owner Ali Sultan as the “jewel in the crown” of his many Hobart developments.

The Full Court ordered the application must be referred to the Environment Protection Authority.

Project manager for the development Moe Sultan said the decision by the Full Court was great news for the project.

“The Montpelier project is a project that our group remains focused and committed to act upon and we will progress the application for developing the site in coming weeks in consultation with the Hobart City Council,” he said.

Council general manager Nick Heath said declaring the permit invalid was a logical step with the status of the project becoming more complicated after the Full Court’s order last year that the application must go before the EPA.

“They will re-lodge it as a new application and go through the usual processes,” he said. “We will refer it to the EPA as the direction, everyone knows where they stand now.”

The bid to build the $80 million development could not proceed until the Full Court decision because Sultan Holdings wants to excavate so much rock for an underground carpark that it is classified as a quarry.

Because of this the development needs special approval from the EPA.

The Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act defines a quarry as “the extraction of any rock or gravel and producing 5000 cubic metres or more of rock or gravel per year” and activity at that level requires special approval.

At least 35,000 cubic metres of rock would be excavated by drilling and blasting for the Salamanca project.

The application was not referred to the EPA when it gained the council planning permit. Mr Heath said that was because the new interpretation came about in a Full Court decision last year.