High-rise court stoush
Thirteen Gold Coast residents, including the chief executive of Margot Robbie’s wedding dress maker and a top silk, are fighting the council in court in a bid to block a high-rise development in an exclusive beach enclave.
Wade Ziems, the chief executive of Grace Loves Lace, has joined with third generation legal eagle Tim Matthews KC in filing an appeal in Brisbane’s Planning and Environment Court against the Council of the City of Gold Coast and the developer of a 14-storey building at Palm
Beach. Wade and Megan Ziems paid $2.5m for their nearby beachfront home six years ago, while Mr Matthews bought into the area, just a few doors away, 13 years ago.
According to the notice of appeal filed in court last Thursday, the 38-unit development was approved by council on December 12, subject to conditions.
The site, at 1177-1179 Gold Coast Highway and backing on to Jefferson Lane on the beachfront side, currently has a small brick three-storey apartment building and two houses on it.
The appeal submits that the court should refuse the development because it is too big and bulky for the 1648sq m site, and stands at 43m tall when the limit under the city plan is 29m. Prior to approval, locals submitted 1512 objections to the development, the appeal notice states.
The appeal states that the proposed building is “inconsistent with the prevailing and desired building height pattern of Palm Beach” and will “dominate” the streetscape and overshadow neighbours.
It also alleges the building fails to “respond to the local character” and laid-back charm of Palm Beach and will cause traffic snarls on Jefferson Lane, a narrow lane popular for on-street parking, where the entry is set to be built.
The other appellants named in the appeal notice include Nicola Hansford, Daryll Dennes, Vanessa Prosser, Gregory Keily, Margaret and Kevin Kunst, Victoria Van Der Meer, Ian Ballantyne, Aidan Macdonald, Geoffrey Middleton and Therese Mason.
The developer, S and J Custodians Group Pty Ltd, a company owned by Kiama, NSW developer Samy Saad, is a corespondent to the appeal.
The 62-year-old’s company paid $14.025m for the three neighbouring sites in 2022.
Another of his companies, Daascon Pty Ltd, which built a Shellharbour unit block, collapsed last year and did a deal with its creditors to pay them 11c in the dollar as part of a deed of company arrangement.
Mr Saad began in the construction industry as a project estimator for Lend Lease in Sydney in 1989, moving on to Stockland as a contracts manager, then to Multiplex as a general manager until 2008.
No defence has been filed and no date has been set for a hearing.