Home Property Australia Response to West Village call-in decision

Response to West Village call-in decision

  • September 13, 2017

Queensland Executive Director of the Property Council, Chris Mountford, provides the following comments in response to the Deputy Premier’s decision today to ‘call-in’ the $800 million West Village development:

“There is no doubt that the property industry will be disappointed with the Deputy Premier’s decision to follow through with a call-in of the West Village Development.

“As we have stated many times, call-in powers need to be used extremely judiciously by the relevant Minister.  From the industry’s perspective, they should be considered an avenue of last resort, to be used when a stalemate or roadblock is preventing a council and developer reaching agreement.  This is not the case in this instance. 

“Call-ins that override approvals which have been issued by councils in line with relevant planning instruments (and are agreed to by the developer), undermine broader industry confidence in the planning system, and ultimately damage the State’s investment reputation. 

“The Deputy Premier has said that she will consider the project on planning grounds. We take her on her word that this will be the case.   At the end of the day the proposal is for a masterplanned urban community in an old industrial site two kilometres from the Queen Street Mall. It is the type of opportunity cities around the world are grabbing with both hands to bring density and mixed use precincts into existing urban areas. 

“There is no doubt that the property industry will be close