Developer taking western council to court over refusal

A TOOWOOMBA developer is taking a western council to court after it refused a development application, eight months after it had originally approved a different submission for the same work.

Applicant PG O’Brien Pty Ltd has filed an appeal in the planning and environment court against the decision by Western Downs Regional Council after it knocked back an application for 81 hectares of land on Dixon, Wambo and Armstrong Sts in Dalby last month.

The original development, which was deemed code-assessable by the council and approved in October last year, was to reconfigure a lot for a boundary realignment, with the aim of creating a series of rural residential-style lots.

According to the appeal, PG O’Brien Pty Ltd then completed more than $44,000 in construction work on site, only to be told by the council in May that the previous application was “invalid”.

“The respondent (WDRC) advised the appellant’s town planning consultant that the previous development approval was invalid as the development application ... was taken to be code assessable whereas it should have been assessed as impact assessment,” it said.

After being ordered to stop work on-site, the developer submitted a new proposal that was impact-assessable and was told that it was properly made and required no referral to an outside agency.

“The confirmation notice also confirmed that the respondent would not be making an information request,” the appeal said.

“The respondent issued a decision notice and advised that on July 17 it had decided to refuse the development application.”

In its decision notice, the council rejected the development, saying it was inconsistent with the planning scheme in various areas and there was no demonstrated need for it.

The appeal argued that the development met the benchmarks the first time it was approved, and that the lots were not being split up but rather re-arranged to ensure all lots fronted roads.

“Even if the proposed development does not comply with some of the assessment benchmarks, compliance can be achieved by imposing development conditions,” the applicant said.

The council declined to comment on the appeal.