THE developer behind the 107-turbine Moorabool wind project and a 64-turbine project in Lal Lal is seeking $100,000 in legal costs from Moorabool Council after a planning stoush.
Last October, the council granted five planning permits for five dwellings on land adjacent to West Wind’s project in Ballan.
The dwellings approved were 226, 277, 258, 363 and 592 metres away from approved wind turbine locations. Under the state government’s new legislation, landowners within two kilometres of a turbine have the final say over the project’s future.
Last November, West Wind asked the council to apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to amend or cancel the permits.
Council declined the request.
In December, VCAT issued a halt on any building and ordered mediation on February 28-29.
An agreement was reached to cancel one permit and move the other four dwellings further from approved wind turbines.
But West Wind’s project manager Phil Burn said the council and landowner proposing the dwellings were aware of the conditions, as they had taken part in the planning panel for the Moorabool wind farm in 2010.
He said the five dwellings were approved contrary to the planning officer’s report, which recommended each of the applications be refused.
Mr Burn said the permit was a thinly veiled attack on the project.
“We are astonished that councillors did not give public notice and issued house permits as close as 226metres from wind turbine sites.”
He said the council’s anti-wind farm stance was well known.
Mayor Pat Griffin said the council had issued the permits appropriately. “How can we reject someone’s permit on planning grounds when they have a right to build?” he said.
Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the council had ignored its own planning scheme to “get cheers from the gallery”.
Mr Burn said the next stages of the project would be announced shortly.
