The Gore Creek Valley Action Group has been incorporated to “protect the parklands, bushland and serenity of the Gore Creek Valley and keeping it for all the community to enjoy”.
The President is Adrienne Cahalan OAM.
Adrienne Told ITC:
“The group is specifically concerned about overdevelopment in and adjacent to Gore Creek Valley – which includes 266 Longueville Road and the Golf Course precinct and the proposed Sport and Recreation Project. It is an action group, so GCVAG are focused on taking action whether politically, legally, or otherwise, to save the Valley and its surrounds from development.
The Gore Creek Valley Action Group emailed their supporters about Lane Cove Council’s role as a developer in light of the recent action taken by NSW Fair Trading against the Lane Cove Council. Read more here.
The newsletter includes the following:
“Through ongoing and proposed development activities by the Council, the risk profile of our small LGA has increased significantly. Amongst metropolitan Councils, Lane Cove is the third smallest by revenue. Only Mosman and Hunters Hill are smaller. Ratepayers and residents should be getting worried.”
In particular, they are concerned about Lane Cove Council’s risk profile in relation to the developments at 266 Longueville Road, Pottery Lane and the St Leonards Over Rail Plaza.
266 Longueville Road
Lane Cove Council is the owner of the land and has leased the land to Longueville the Village Pty Ltd as Trustee for Longueville the Village Unit Trust.
A Development Application was originally approved to construct a seniors housing development comprising a 70-bed residential aged care facility, 82 independent living units/self-contained dwellings, with basement car parking for 122 vehicles, a new public park and facilities and landscaped through-site link.
The developer submitted a section 4.55 modification request. The Sydney North Planning Panel approved the modification permitting the developer to construct a seniors housing development comprising 92 independent living units, basement car parking for 181 vehicles, a new public park and facilities and landscaped through-site link.
The risk profile of Lane Cove Council has now increased. Pursuant to Section 4 of the Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Act 2020 the Lane Cove Council is a developer as they own the land where the building work will take place. As a developer, they have extensive obligations under the act and can be served with a building rectification order (up to 10 years after the building is completed).
This is not a hypothetical situation, as a Building Defects Rectification Order was issued to the Lane Cove Council in relation to the Pottery Lane Building.
The lease between the developer and Lane Cove Council does not include the usual trustee warranties such as:
- The Trustee warrants that it is entitled under the Trust Deed to be indemnified in full in respect of the obligations and liabilities incurred by it under the lease.
- The Trustee warrants that prior to the Trustee being replaced as the trustee of the trust in accordance with the Trust Deed, the Trustee procuring that the replacement trustee enters into a new agreement with the Council on the same terms as the lease.
These are standard warranties in legal documents where one of the contracting parties is a trustee.
The Gore Creek Valley Action Group also noted in their newsletter
“An associated issue is that if Council adopted the new plans, the Pathways Group would enjoy a substantial uplift in value due to the reconfigured structure as just seniors living. How does Council propose to be justly compensated for this?”
They also note:
“266 Longueville Road were women’s sports fields which could be netball courts for local clubs and schools and yet they are being leased to a developer for what was aged care and no longer is proposed to be?”
Andrew Taylor wrote a Sydney Morning Herald article about the Building Rectification Order. The article quoted a Lane Cove Council spokesperson who said:
“Council is surprised that Fair Trading NSW has determined that it should bear the cost and not the developer or builder,” a council spokeswoman said. “Given the order was only received last week, council has not sought an estimate of the cost.”
Lane Cove Council was given a copy of the proposed order on 18 May 2023. Lane Cove Council submitted to Fair Trading, “the appropriate course for the Department to take, to remediate the relevant defects, is to issue any necessary BWRO on WN Developments and not Council”.
Lane Cove Council did not provide a justification for this course of action, and the Department of Fair Trading stated that as Lane Cove Council was the developer, it is appropriate to serve the rectification notion on the council.
Lane Cove Council is also a member of the strata and is entitled to attend all meetings – they would have known for a considerable period that the building had defects that needed rectification.
St Leonards Over Rail Plaza Project
The Lane Cove Council has recently constructed the St Leonards Over Rail Plaza. This development is a $20 million dollar plus project.
What are Lane Cove Council’s ongoing contractual risks for this project?
Has Lane Cove Council disclosed these risks in their annual accounts and to the Lane Cove Councillors? Will Lane Cove Councillors request a risk profile report and will they agree to the change in use at 266 Longueville Road?
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