[traveller (Bo)]

Hi all, just an update on the high rise development. The Council rejected it and the developers took it to VCAT.
The developers had 3 expert witnesses and a lawyer. The defendants were the council, three local residents and myself. We all attended and each provided a formal submission. One person was an architect, and he demonstrated the inappropriateness of the proposal, overlaying it against existing mediym density apartment blocks near us. His partner was a urban heritage consultant and she set the record straight on local hisotry around the development site.
The other person was a geneticist and he demonstrated the developer's poor use of statistical analysis. My contribution was unearthing 2011 ABS data (they used 2006 data) to show they grossly underestimated car parking requirements and traffic flow.
The hearing went on for 3 days and on the final day, the tribunal members (2) did an actual site visit and witnessed first hand the congestions in traffic which we made.
The tribunal hearing wrapped up last Friday and we will find out in the next month or so what will happen. We all argued for a reduction in the development from 8 down to 4 (hoping to mediate to 5 or even 6).
Anyway, will update again once the verdict is handed down.
Cheers,
Bo