Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal criticises local council for ‘leveraging ‘ approvals for Pinnacle Living's Bellarine Springs Retirement Village

The already approved extension to the retirement village in Drysdale, a rural township near Geelong, 72km southwest of Melbourne's CBD, has received approval from the State's planning authority after the applicant Clifton Springs (Holdings) Pty Ltd sought a change in the approval. VCAT member Nick Wimbush accused the City of Greater Geelong of holding the development hostage, ruling existing permit conditions accommodated for the changes. “For the record I am not suggesting that these other matters do not need to be addressed or are not required through development,” he said. “However, I do not consider they can be leveraged by the responsible authority withholding the endorsement of plans through what is a relatively narrowly constructed permit condition.” Bellarine Springs will have an additional 49 new units, with 39 of them two-bedroom and 14 three-bedroom units, over 2.55ha. The proposal will likely be in two stages. Pinnacle Living operates three retirement villages: Bellarine Springs, Tudor Village Lilydale and Yarrbat Place Balwyne.