Luis Feliu
Residents of a housing estate in Kingscliff who have long fought against an expansion of their manufactured-home park are breathing a little easier after a court rejected an appeal by the developer wanting to add 32 extra homes on the site.
The Land and Environment Court this week dismissed an appeal by Noble Lakeside Park developer Baclon Pty Ltd against Tweed Shire Council’s refusal last year of the longrunning and controversial bid to add the extra manufactured homes.
And any further bids to expand the estate appear to have been ruled out by the court, which also awarded costs – expected to be around $30,000 – to Tweed Shire Council.
The latest decision comes at the end of a long history by the company, owned by businessman Keith Noble and his family, to build extra homes along the edge of a man-made lake on the estate used by the mostly elderly and retired people for passive recreation.
The company employs as park manager Tweed Shire Cr Warren Polglase, who has always distanced himself from any debate or vote on the issue.
In refusing the appeal, Land and Environment Court commissioner Sue Morris said she considered the site unsuitable for the proposed development because of the nature and extent of works required.
Commissioner Morris said those works would cause adverse impacts to the amenity of the area, both within the park site itself and to the character of the local area.
Cssnr Morris said the expansion would result in ‘significant loss of visual amentiy for residents of the site and their enjoyment of the current natural character of the northern part of the site’.
She said that while experts agreed the development, with the agreed offsets, would have no ecological impact on threatened species, it would still impact on the general site ecology and landscaped setting.
‘That impact is detrimental to the amenity and character of the area and the natural and built environment,’ she concluded.
Residents say the ruling appears to have shut the door on any further applications to build extra homes on the estate.
In October last year, Tweed Council rejected the plan to expand the existing 254 dwellings at the park by the 32 extra homes, many of them on poles and built over the man-made lake that residents walk around.
In 2010, a previous bid for 45 extra homes was knocked back by the Joint Regional Planning Panel.
The latest court case was the fourth attempt by Cr Polglase’s boss to expand the park.
Since 2005, proposed further development there has been rejected by all consent authorities’ determinations and court rulings, citing impacts on the existing amenity of residents and character of the park as reasons for refusal.
The Land and Environment Court previously knocked back an expansion plan involving an extra dwelling.
The mostly elderly residents have been fighting the proposed expansion for years, saying it would take away their valued nature trail along the north bank of the lake, which they use on a daily basis, and destroy the peaceful and visual amenity of the place.
They say that when they first bought into the park, park amenities, including the walking trail and the lake, were presented as permanent features, a major factor in their decision to buy.
But Roger Noble, of Baclon, says the nature trail was only ever promised as a required buffer for a proposed turf farm to treat sewage effluent, which didn’t go ahead so the buffer was no longer required.
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