Inverloch apartments will dominate The Glade, they say

THE Glade, Inverloch’s answer to the village green, has emerged as a central issue in the debate over whether the four-storey ‘Lido Place’ residential hotel and apartment building is an appropriate use of the land next door, at 2-4 The Esplanade Inverloch.

On Day Two of the hearing into the $35 million project application, at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, legal counsel for the South Gippsland Conservation Society, Barnaby McIlrath, Principal of PE Law, called on conservation society president Ed Thexton to address the panel.

“Inverloch is a traditional village with its main street and village green, if you like, in this case The Glade is our village green. It’s no ordinary piece of land,” Mr Thexton said.

“Inverloch is a town of 6500 people at the last Census and when people come down here, from suburbia, they’re looking for that coastal village feel and The Glade is central to that,” he said.

“The Glade is situated down about three metres from the level of the surrounding area offering a level of protection from the coastal winds and as everyone knows, the opportunity to moderate the prevailing coastal conditions which are wind, wind and more wind, is highly prized by coastal communities.”

He said the ambience of The Glade was subdued and protected by its location, providing a casual ambience that was enjoyed by all who visited it for regular Farmers Markets, music and community events, for family picnics or just as a community meeting place.

“We do a lot of our gathering in Inverloch at The Glade and it’s the only passive meeting place in town. We do have several reserves for sport, but The Glade is our only informal meeting place.”

But Mr Thexton said that the development of an 11-metre-high residential hotel right on the edge of The Glade would completely destroy its character and purpose.

“The Glade is one of the first places people come to in the town, to stop and enjoy,” he said, noting that the growth of Inverloch was only going to make The Glade more important, not less.

“It wouldn’t be such a problem if the building wasn’t so close to The Glade but it is really very, very close to The Glade.

“If this project goes ahead, you will always have the slab side of a building right on the edge of The Glade,” Mr Thexton said.

Being so close and so dominant on the site, he said, there was no likelihood of it being successfully screened by vegetation.

Whether Mr Thexton’s comments about the importance of The Glade made an impression on Senior Tribunal Member Laurie Hewett will only be known at the end of the hearing, expected to run for the rest of the week.

Earlier the VCAT panel had heard from Bass Coast Shire Council representatives Maria Marshall, a Planning and Environment Partner at Maddocks Lawyers, and Principal Statutory Planner at the Bass Coast Shire Kerri-Anne Tatchell.

A comprehensive presentation of the project was presented by Dominic Scally, a partner at Best Hooper, for the project developers, the Forte Group.

And on Tuesday afternoon, prominent urban design planner, Amanda Roberts, provided a critique of the Forte Group’s project, as an expert witness for the South Gippsland Conservation Society, following on from a presentation of the society’s case by Mr McIlrath.

Among other things Mr McIlwaith told the panel that comparisons with recent development approvals at Cowes, including the apartment building set for the old Warley Hospital site, were not relevant for a number of stated reasons.

He said the apartment building provided no walk-through opportunities for the general community, he questioned the proposed retail mix and also said the claims by the developers that the bar and café would be exclusively for the use of guests of the residential hotel “didn’t pass the pub test”.

He raised concerns that the property’s carpark could be left empty at times when it might be used by the community and that the building’s height and bulk would dominate the centre of town and The Glade.

The preference of the conservation society is that there not be a residential hotel development on the site at all, that it be used for community purposes including as a museum and cultural centre, linking in with the shire’s proposal for a dinosaur trail between San Remo and Inverloch.