Cash offer shock

By Paul Pickering
UPPER Ferntree Gully residents were shocked and insulted by a property developer’s offer of $150 to withdraw their objections to his planning application.
The revelation was reported by Dobson Ward councillor Karin Orpen last Tuesday night (25 September) as the planning amendment for the Rollings Road site went before Knox City Council.
Cr Orpen revealed that the applicant, Ray Taylor, had made the unorthodox move of approaching the two objectors to his proposal directly at their homes, before making a written offer of money to encourage them to reconsider.
Mr Taylor’s previous application to subdivide the site for four dwellings was approved by the council in January 2005, but concerns from nearby residents about the height of the proposed two-storey building had necessitated amendments to the original plans.
Still unsatisfied with the plans, two local residents lodged objections with the council – unaware that their names and addresses would be available to Mr Taylor.
One of the objectors, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Mail last week that Mr Taylor and another man had arrived at their front door one evening wanting to discuss the objector’s concerns about his plans.
“I was in definite shock and felt extremely intimidated to have strangers at my door,” the objector said.
“I felt that my rights of privacy had been infringed.”
After refusing to speak to Mr Taylor on the spot, the objector soon received a letter offering money.
“I was insulted – absolutely livid,” the objector said.
While Mr Taylor last week admitted that he had offered money to the objectors, he said it was merely a bid to expedite the path of the application through council’s planning checks.
“It was not done in any way as a bribe,” Mr Taylor said, explaining that the delay caused by the normal objection procedures was costing him money.
“That’s not how the letter was put, it was a matter of … these delays are causing us huge financial stress, maybe this may tip the scales for them,” he said.
Further, Mr Taylor said that Knox’s planning officers had suggested to him that the only way to speed up the process was to have the objections withdrawn, and that developers had been known to offer objectors money to encourage them to reconsider their concerns.
Senior Constable Brett Adamson of the Victoria Police last week confirmed that it was not considered a bribe to offer another citizen monetary compensation.
Responding to Mr Taylor’s claims, Knox’s acting director of city development, Paul Dickie, said:
“The council is aware that some developers do offer objectors financial compensation for withdrawing their objections. However, the council discourages this practice.”
For the objectors, though, the heart of the matter was that they were disturbed that their names and addresses were so freely available to the applicant.
In fact, as Cr Orpen explained in council chambers last Tuesday, there is no scope in the Planning and Environment Act for objectors’ details to be suppressed – even if they specifically request such action.
As a result of the incident, Knox City Council will lobby the State Government to consider amending the act to prevent the personal details of objectors being made available to the public if requested by the objector concerned.
In a preliminary response last week, Licardo Prince, a spokesman for Planning Minister Justin Madden, said:
“The planning process must be open and transparent to ensure the integrity of any outcome.
“This includes the details of participants, including proponents and objectors, being made available on the public record.”
However, he said the Government would consider Knox’s proposal.