Members statements
Nyah West planning
Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (13:48): The horticulture industry north of Swan Hill is in desperate need of accommodation options for the thousands of people it employs, and with that in mind I am very concerned about the way the Swan Hill Rural City Council has made it difficult for a developer to build eight houses in Nyah West. Builder and developer Justin Quattrocchi of Four North Investments purchased land to subdivide into eight lots. The Swan Hill Rural City Council approved that planning permit, but they put a condition on it that he should seal Donald Street, which runs east–west adjacent to that particular land. Mr Quattrocchi took the council to VCAT, and VCAT ruled that the contested conditions were not appropriate or reasonable and that the council had fallen well short of the information and evidence required to justify the sealing of Donald Street as a condition of the permit issued for the site under review. That was stated by the VCAT member that heard this particular case.
Mr Quattrocchi said that it was actually mind-blowing that this had happened. This council was advertising on their website to entice builders and developers to the area to actually build houses. He was going to build these eight houses as rental properties. Nyah West is a great little community, but it does not have accommodation options. It has a fantastic school, but the shire did everything they could for him not to go there. He is now saying he is going to move to the Buloke shire for his next development.