Bathla Awarded Fifth of Compo Sought for Sydney Site

A court case involving a near-threatened species of frog and a compulsory land acquisition by a Sydney council has ended with a developer being awarded less than a fifth of the compensation it asked for. The Land and Environment Court this month issued its determination on an appeal case involving land owned by developer Bathla Group and its acquisition by the Blacktown Council. UPG 72 Ltd, an entity owned by Universal Property Group—the sole director of which is listed in ASIC documents as Bhart Bhushan, managing director of Bathla—owned Lot 31 Regent Street in the Riverstone precinct. According to the case documents on the LEC website, in 2021 Blacktown City Council began the compulsory acquisition of the site for the purposes of drainage infrastructure and the creation of habitat for the near-threatened green and golden bell frog. Bathla objected to the $2.5 million offered by the council for Lot 31, seeking instead just over $7 million, and launched an appeal in 2022. This month, after multiple hearings in May and December 2024 as well as January 2025, the LEC ordered compensation paid to Bathla should stand at $1.2 million. Site history Bathla had bought several lots, which included the site in question, in July 2020 for $7.5 million. It sold several of the sites by the time the acquisition by the council happened, according to LEC documents. It came with a long history of drainage issues and a need for any development onsite to mitigate potential flooding. Ecological reports from as early as 2008 also advocated that high-quality habitat areas for the green and golden bell frog be set aside, bringing attention to the adequacy of conservation efforts in growth centres. ▲ The Blacktown Council Chambers. Precinct plans for the area required that protection of the frog’s habitat be considered during the assessment of any development applications in the area. When Bathla acquired the wider site in 2020, it was already approved for a 29-lot residential subdivision with a Stage 2 of five residential lots, dubbed Lot 31, which is the lot that the council acquired. Bathla amended the approved DA in September 2020 to change subdivision layout and lot sizes including Stage 2, which was approved two months later. The acquisition and LEC case The council in September 2022 offered the Bathla entity, as owner of the site, compensation of $2.5 million. It consisted of $2.4 million for market value as determined by the Valuer General and just under $35,000 “for losses attributable to disturbance”. Bathla objected to the amount of compensation offered by the council and began an appeal against the determination in October 2022. It sought compensation of $7 million, based on a market value calculated with reference to its low-density residential rezoning and its subdivision potential for 18 housing lots. ▲ Formerly common along the east coast, the green and golden bell frog is considered near-threatened. The LEC said it had to consider the public purpose of the acquisition, whether the land would have been designated as low-density residential, as Bathla had suggested, or rural land, and whether the watercourse running through it, which made up the frog habitat, could be moved or removed. It also considered the market value of the land, and whether a section, 55(f), of the Just Terms Act applied any increase in the value of adjoining or severed land, due to the public purpose for which the land was acquired, could be used to offset compensation payable, a concept known as “betterment”. Despite agreeing with Bathla that it would have been unlikely the land would be zoned rural, given that the Riverstone Precinct was to be the first of the precincts released in the North West centre by the NSW Government, the court did decide that “there can be no doubt that the acquired land provided habitat for the [green and golden bell frog]”. Thus an environmental conservation zoning would have been likely, it decided, and this would have an impact on the valuation of the land. Valuers heard by the court agreed that if the entirety of the acquired land was zoned E2, then it would have a value of $100 per sq m, making the market value of the acquired property $700,000. But it also took into consideration adjoining lots owned by Bathla in its wider site and the impact the public purpose site would have on them. Thus, the LEC determined that compensation for the compulsory acquisition of the Bathla land should be $1.2 million, still a considerable haircut from the $7 million it was asking for. Bathla and the Blacktown Council were contacted for comment.

Bathla Awarded Fifth of Compo Sought for Sydney Site

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