Fishermans Bend developer sues minister over massive apartment project
A developer is suing Planning Minister Richard Wynne after his ambitious apartment tower plans were caught up in a mass freeze of projects at Fishermans Bend.
Developer David Joachim lodged his Supreme Court case last month, after Mr Wynne seized planning control for 26 development sites in the Fishermans Bend area in February.
Sites Mr Wynne took over included two of Mr Joachim's projects, in Port Melbourne's Plummer Street and Rocklea Drive.
Mr Joachim is not seeking money, instead, he wants his development to be considered under the current, more generous-to-development planning rules for the Fishermans Bend area.
Mr Wynne has pledged to bring in stricter planning rules for the area by the end of the year.
Lawyers for Mr Joachim’s companies behind the Port Melbourne projects argue Mr Wynne failed to give adequate notice before calling in the developments.
The projects were already before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, and Mr Joachim's lawyers argue that under the tribunal is where they should stay.
Mr Joachim’s towers are part of a wider $1.35 billion precinct his company Third Street wants to developing in Wirraway, a new area within Fishermans Bend.
Fishermans Bend is Australia's largest urban renewal project, covering approximately 480 hectares of largely industrial land in Port Melbourne and South Melbourne.
The area was rezoned as a major development precinct overnight by Matthew Guy as planning minister in 2012, with no provisions for services, infrastructure or transport.
The rezoning added millions overnight to the worth of land, much of it owned by developers, and caused a rush of high-rise tower applications. Mr Guy is now the state opposition leader.
In a bid to reset the planning rules for the area, Mr Wynne brought in interim rules for Fishermans Bend in 2015.
But in February he upset those with live planning permits by effectively resetting the rules again for the area.
A group of planning experts appointed by Labor after it won government were scathing of Mr Guy's actions, saying they were unmatched worldwide for their failure to plan for key services in the urban renewal area.
A panel of experts is now midway through hearing more than two months of evidence from developers and their lawyers, councils, planning experts and residents affected by the laws the government is likely to bring in.
The lawyer acting for Mr Joachim in his case against the minister is Norton Rose Fulbright partner Tamara Brezzi.
In her affidavit to the court, Ms Brezzi said the minister's attempt to seize planning control should fail because he had not taken action in time before Mr Joachim's VCAT case began.
She said Mr Joachim's companies had "experienced, and will continue to experience, adverse financial" impacts from Mr Wynne's actions. She provided the likely cost of this to the courts, but it was marked confidential.
A spokesman for Mr Wynne said the government made "no apology for taking the necessary steps to protect Fishermans Bend ... from the planning mess left behind by [Mr] Guy". But the minister declined to comment on Mr Joachim's projects because the matter was before the courts.