Votsaris pledges Drooping Sheoak won’t go to VCAT

THE team behind a proposed seven-star hotel in Portarlington want the project to move faster through the City of Greater Geelong’s planning system, but also say they will not pursue the matter at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) if a permit is not granted.

To be built at 30-34 Geelong-Portarlington Road by Batman Management Group, the multi-storey Drooping Sheoak project will be built into a hill across three titles and be four storeys high (plus a rooftop terrace) at street level.

It will include conference and function facilities, a wellness centre, and 72 hotel rooms.

Batman Management Group revealed the project in October of last year and held a community meeting in Portarlington in November.

Chief executive officer Bill Votsaris gave an update on the development’s status to two meetings of the Portarlington Business and Development Association (PBDA) last week at the Portarlington Grand Hotel, attended by a combined crowd of about 200 people.

Speaking at the PBDA meeting on Wednesday last week, Mr Votsaris said Batman Management Group “had not gone to VCAT for any of our developments to date” and said his business would not try to overturn the decision at VCAT if the city refused a planning permit for Drooping Sheoak.

“The project that we develop has to be viable here because in a typical sort of [residential] development, where you get a permit and sell off the plan, that means the developer’s only interested in the permit. We don’t sell our projects.

“We have a view that if the community is not behind it and not supporting it, it’s not going to be viable.”

He said the project had not yet gone through formal community consultation, but the application for Drooping Sheoak had been lodged but was not yet on public exhibition.

“We believe it’s going a little bit slower than what we would have liked.

“But we’re happy to introduce the project to the community beforehand, so the community is fully aware of it.

“The plans have been submitted to the council for about four months, and typically, our expectation would have been that in probably two months it would be available for community consultation ”

In response to questions from this newspaper, City of Greater Geelong director of city planning and economy Gareth Smith received the permit application for 30-34 Geelong-Portarlington Road on January 17.

“On January 27, the City requested additional information required to be submitted as part of the application. This information has not yet been provided.

“The permit applicant requested and was granted a number of extensions of time to provide the additional information.

“The information requested is now due to be submitted by October 20.”

For more information on the development, head to droopingsheoak.com.au.