A proposal to build a hotel and grappa distillery at 46-52 Brumby’s Road South Warrandyte has been rejected by VCAT. This time the site is in the Manningham portion of the Green Wedge.
The proposed development was to build, on a 2.35 ha site, a 49 room hotel – revised down from the original 76 room proposal – a grappa distillery, a restaurant/event space to accommodate 150 patrons, other function areas and associated parking – and almost as an afterthought, the ‘agricultural‘ activity: a small vineyard and some citrus trees. While the Planning Scheme under Clause 57 does contemplate allowing a residential hotel or restaurant within the Green Wedge, such developments are supposed to be in conjunction with agricultural uses, and to have genuine, close and continuing operational relationship with an agricultural use.
The land in question has no existing agricultural use and the proposed plantings represented a very small portion of the site. Both the Manningham council and objectors argued that the proposal did not meet the requirements of Clause 57, along with other serious objections. The Tribunal rejected this argument, but dismissed the application on other grounds. The Tribunal did make it clear that there was no viable agricultural use of the land now or in the proposal:
- Para. 21 …the proposed layout of building and works confirms for us that the vineyard and orchard is not for the purpose of agriculture.
- Para 23. We find the vineyard and orchard is primarily a garden or landscaped setting for the Residential hotel.
However, it regarded the proposed winery/distillery as a recognised, bona fide agricultural use, even if product for processing was brought in, providing what it saw as the necessary functional relationship with the hotel.,Having reached this conclusion the Tribunal then went on to reject the proposal on the grounds of inappropriate size and build, risk to life in the event of bushfire, and inability of the road infrastructure to meet current and future traffic volumes.
Objectors and the Council will no doubt be puzzled by the Tribunal’s reading of Clause 57 of the Planning Scheme, but nonetheless pleased that other arguments against the proposal were accepted.
Interestingly, the owners of this site also own the adjacent Olivigna restaurant. Olivigna already imposes traffic and access stress in the area, as VCAT noted during a site visit. Furthermore, the owners some time ago applied for a permit to install a helipad for the restaurant. This met fierce resistance from residents in the area. Over the years the owners of Olivigna have applied for multiple development permits. The original application, associated with the olive grove, started with a limited trading and tasting permit to operate between 11.00 am and 3.00 pm on weekends only.
Clearly, had the owners, at the outset, applied for a development embracing two large restaurants, multiple function spaces, a distillery and associated parking, a hotel and helipad this would have been rejected outright as ridiculous overdevelopment. Yet, bit by bit this is what they have attempted to build. Fortunately, the residents and community have been alert to the risks such incremental development poses for the integrity of Melbourne’s Green Wedges.
Find the WCA submission here
Find the VCAT decision here