Geelong Housing Plan Greenlit at Second VCAT Hearing

A Geelong residential project has been approved at its second Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) hearing.

Desbrowe Developments and Glengarry Developments first applied to build a 57-apartment and 17-townhouse development at 510 and 510A Latrobe Boulevard in 2021. 

The project will redevelop a former industrial site at the north side of the Barwon River. 

The 10,056sq m site includes a heritage building, once part of the Collins Bros and later Allied Woollen Mills, while the rest of the land is vacant.

At the developer’s first attempt, however, the Greater Geelong City Council did not determine the project in time.

It was then considered by VCAT and struck down in 2022.

The tribunal at that hearing determined then that although density, scale and mass were “acceptable”, impacts on tourist attraction Barwon Grange—a 19th-century villa with a protected Moreton Bay fig tree—the landscape response and internal layout and amenity were not.

The court ordered the developers back to the drawing board.

They did just that, filing updated plans in 2024. 

▲ A rendering of the approved development that overlooks the Barwon River.

But despite changes to the proposals, the council again failed to consider the application within the prescribed time, leading the developers to apply to VCAT for a review of the deemed refusal.

The council and several respondents initially opposed the permit being granted.

VCAT said that its previous rejection had been given “significant weight” due to the fact the project was so similar to its previous iteration. 

But following a compulsory conference process and amended permit application, the council changed its position. 

▲ A neighbouring flour mill site at Latrobe Boulevard was sold in 2023.

Modifications to the design and management of vehicle access and increased setbacks, as well as management of a tree-protection zone, were also made.

VCAT ruled that the development responded to the Greater Geelong planning scheme’s “ambitions for use and redevelopment of this area while also specifically addressing the site’s physical and strategic contextual circumstances”, and granted the planning permit.

Also in the area, Geelong-based developer Hamilton Group acquired a site neighbouring the now-approved Latrobe Boulevard scheme, paying $8 million for the site that also is home to 19th-century woollen mills in 2023.