Residents believe they have a 50-50 chance of winning a two-year legal battle against the controversial $900 million Sekisui House beachfront development in Yaroomba.
The drawn-out fight will come to a head in the Supreme Court on Wednesday when residents appeal the Planning and Environment Court’s decision from May 2020 to uphold council’s approval.
If lost, the appeal could be the end of the road for the community when it comes to legal avenues and after seven years of vehemently campaigning against Sekisui’s project.
About 40 residents will attend the hearing in Brisbane in which legal teams representing both sides will present their closing arguments.
The case is being heard between the community group Development Watch versus Sekisui House and Sunshine Coast Council in front of three judges and has been booked for one-and-a-half days.
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The Sekisui House master planned estate was approved by Sunshine Coast Council in a vote of six to five in June 2018 in the face of vocal community objection which garnered more than 9,000 submissions against the project (and about 3,000 in support).
The council placed almost 250 conditions on the development which includes a seven-storey, five-star hotel plus 753 residential apartments, 98 two-to three storey homes and a retail village.
Development Watch and the Sunshine Coast Environment Council lodged an unsuccessful appeal against council’s approval in the Planning and Environment Court in November 2019.
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Development Watch president Lyn Saxton told sunshinecoastnews.com.au Wednesday’s appeal would centre on three arguments relating to the need for the project, the height limit and public interest.
“We think the (Planning and Environment Court) made a number of errors in the court’s judgement but because we have limited resources we had to choose three areas we wanted to appeal,” Ms Saxton said.
“The ‘need’ issue is complex but the court didn’t accept our evidence of need expectations.
“The court didn’t accept our arguments about height limits and the court also did not accept there was enough public interest in the matter.”
Ms Saxton said if the appeal was not successful she did not believe the community had any more legal avenues to pursue.
“I don’t think you can take planning and environment matters to the High Court. I don’t think it’s realistic, but we’ll get advice,” she said.
The Save Yaroomba community group spearheaded a fundraising campaign that raised about $90,000 to cover legal expenses for this case and have raised $500,000 over the years for the previous appeal.
Save Yaroomba campaign spokesperson Kathryn Hyman said it was a relief to finally have their day in court.
“In the past six months our volunteers have launched a GoFundMe page for donations, produced two videos, held events including a traffic impact display, a silent art auction, a trivia night, numerous sausage sizzles and sold merchandise at markets, plus run a social media and news media campaign.
“All of this was to raise the $100,000 needed for legal fees. We are close to our target, but still have a gap to fill.”
Ms Hyman said the Save Yaroomba campaigners had been labelled a ‘noisy minority’ but she said “we are far from that”.
“The ratio of objections was three to one out of more than 12,000 submissions which was a record,” she said.
Ms Hyman said whichever way the decision went would set a precedent in case law about developments adhering, or not, to a council’s planning scheme.
“This is a really important case to win because communities everywhere and developers can use this example to challenge or tear down a planning scheme into pieces and ignore it because there is a precedent for that,” she said.
“Developers are supposed to abide by the planning scheme to avoid these kinds of fights. If you ignore the primacy of the planning scheme, what’s the point of putting it together.
“Now we place full trust in our legal team and the Court of Appeals in Brisbane’s Supreme Court.
“Then the wait begins, as it could take several nail-biting months for the Court’s decision to be known.”
Sekisui House has previously said it wants to build a world-class tourist destination and residential coastal village that would be a “landmark development in Australia” and would create hundreds of jobs in construction and the ongoing operation of the first stage.
Sekisui has said its Westin Coolum Resort and Spa would be the first five-star hotel developed on the Coast in over 30 years and would drive new tourism for conferences and events.
