Tate Papworth
A planning permit application for a controversial townhouse estate in Kealba has been knocked back by Brimbank Council.
The fight over the Driscolls Road development began last year with residents holding concerns that the proposal was excessive and would create multiple issues.
The Brimbank council also had a number of issues with the proposal, however the developer decided to have the matter heard at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal before councillors could vote on the matter.
The proposal was knocked back at VCAT with a number of items needing to be addressed.
The revised application was put before councillors last week, who rejected it.
An officer report into the application said the application did not appropriately respond to the issues previously raised by council or those identified in the VCAT decision on the previous application.
The report flagged the overall poor response to the character of the area, poor landscaping opportunities, insufficient tree retention, dominance of car parking areas and crossovers, poor orientation of dwellings, poor dwelling diversity, traffic and safety issues as areas of concern.
Cr Virginia Tachos said the changes put in place by the developers fell short.
“Although there appears to have been an attempt by the developer to address some of these failings, the intent hasn’t gone far enough,” she said.
“They have in effect decreased the number of dwellings by six, but increased the size of many of the dwellings by squeezing them into the centre of the site.”
