WHEN WARRIMOO UNITED TO STOP A BIG DEVELOPER

A Sudden Threat: The Mall Development and      'WRAG'--1999-2008

In early 1999 some residents of Warrimoo became aware that a 'Mr. Oliveri'--high profile bus company owner from Liverpool district--had purchased 'Lot 25 The Mall' and in the name of 'Bendent Pty Ltd' was proposing a 72 lot residential development on the 9 hectares of land for 'Lot 25' bounded by the Great Western Highway, The Boulevarde and Florabella Street as well Arthur Street. The Mall itself would be extended into it. Essentially, the land was the gully behind Warrimoo shops.

The proposed development was to be in 'the heart' of Warrimoo.

The news hit Warrimoo residents like a bomb. The Citizens Association was prevailed upon to call an urgent meeting prior to BMCC's consideration of the matter in June. A letter-box drop called a General Meeting for the 19th April 1999 at the Citizens Hall. The response was overwhelming--some 110 residents attended, shocked, concerned, and ready for a fight. The list of attendees shows many of Warrimoo's most renowned and finest, heeding the call:

List of attendees at the WCA General Meeting for 19th April, 1999, held in the Citizens Hall--there was a further meeting a week later in the School Hall.

The huge WCA meeting was attended by three Councillors: Colleen Kime, Duncan Berriman and Angelique Henson, who also happened to be a great friend/admirer of Warrimoo and Deputy Mayor at the time. A 'Fighting Fund' was set up and specially committed activist volunteers formed the 'Warrimoo Residents Action Group' (WRAG) to research and promote the campaign to stop 'Bendent's' well funded development machine. They compiled a magnificent case, based upon the following main points:

• pollution--the gully was the source of three 'run off' watercourses flowing into Florabella Creek and thence Glenbrook Creek. Development would interrupt, deform and siltify downstream watercourse functions; noise and air factors also.
• social impact--quiet village atmosphere would be submerged in 72 extra families.
• traffic--roads were too narrow and dangerous (no footpaths!) to carry the extra traffic--400 to 600 extra movements a day
• too much stress on water, electricity and phone services
• threat of bushfires engulfing this confined and steeply sloping gully
• threat to at least three gully species: the Red Crowned Toadlet, Squirrel Gliders and Yellow Bellied Gliders
• there were at least three identified Aboriginal sites on the subject land

 

The 'Red Crowned Toadlet' (much smaller in real life--about the size of a 5 cent piece)--one of the rare species endangered by the The Mall development proposal.

Inspired by the leadership of 'WRAG', Leslie Jennings, Jack Marland, Ruth Hoye, Jan Welland and Alison Kniha, the rationale for these objections was of course researched in depth and far more detailed. When she moved as Deputy Mayor to block the proposal on Council, Angelique Henson was well armed and thoroughly informed. The development was rejected overwhelmingly.

Deputy Mayor and staunch ally of 'WRAG' and the WCA, Angelique Henson.

But 'Bendent Pty Ltd' was not done yet. They appealed to the Land and Environment Court, but after a protracted case the judgement, made in 2002, came down in favour of Council, who were awarded costs. Basically, the Court ruling found the proposal was 'too much, too unprepared' for the land in question.

Undeterred, Oliveri tried again, in 2005, by reducing the number of Lots to be developed to 43. In response BMCC remained firm and knocked it back on the basis of the now 'beefed up' provisions in its 1991 Local Environment Provisions ('LEP'). Bendent Pty Ltd then resubmitted an 'amended' application on the basis that the previous Council objections had been addressed. They had not, and site meetings subsequently occurred between Fire Brigade officers and Council staff, with the Developer, to clarify what needed to be done.

A more detailed map of the proposed development. This is the lighter, '43 Lot' version, adopted after the '72 Lot' submission was rejected some years earlier.

Throughout this agonising, drawn out process, the people of Warrimoo continued 'on edge'. Many thought the threat was over after Council's earlier refusal, or after the Court judgement, but it was not. 'WRAG' appears to have 'withered on the vine'--meeting attendances shrank, and correspondence seems to have waned. In a sense, their job was done: the many reasons why this development was unpopular with Warrimooians had been articulated, over and again.

So it was the doughty officers of the WCA--Allan Bewley, Barry and Jan Welland, Tony Montgomery, Trish Mungoven et al who carried on their meetings, their correspondence with Council, and their supervision of negotiations, who received the 'final letter'. It was addressed to 'Warrimoo Citizens Association' and its Secretary, Patricia Mungoven, and was signed by the Executive Principal, Development Engineering of BMCC, Paul Koen, and was dated 23rd July 2008. It read:

"This letter is forwarded in response to your submission to Council in connection with the land use application for a two lot into forty three lot subdivision on the above property (25 The Mall). I wish to advise that the application has been refused.

 It should be noted however, that the applicant has the right to lodge an application for a review of the decision and the right of appeal to the Land and Environment Court...."[footnote supplied]

In the event, the appeal did not happen this time. The developer had given up. Warrimoo had managed to avoid the creeping suburbanisation happening all about, but mainly down on 'the Plain'.